The Black Swan
by Im2xshy
Summary: Bella meets the Cullens through another avenue…her brother  Just trust me on this . AU  obviously ; canon couples  because anything else skeeves me out .
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: #1: Well, I don't know if my Twilight readers are going to be happy to see a new story or frustrated that I haven't finished the other two yet, but we shall see! I know I still have As Good As Dead going in True Blood, I'll finish it. I've got the ideas, but the dialog muse came over here. Actually, blame Fintan. He's the one who is currently tight lipped on the brink of a lecture to Sookie. I go where the muse leads me and at the moment, she's led me to this intriguing idea.**

**#2: I do not own these characters. I don't make any money from this. But it is fun! The other kids always seemed to have better toys!**

**#3: Thanks to my super-betas Felicity Deadwood and Knitzi_Killer! (Felicity Deadwood is going to start posting one of two totally amazing fics soon, so be on the lookout for her stuff. And if you haven't read Knitzi_Killer's stuff yet, my question to you is WHY!)**

**#4: Now, I may write for my enjoyment, but I still like to know what you think so don't forget to review! I write, you review, I write, you review…it's a nice happy give-and-take relationship.**

**SUMMARY: Bella meets the Cullens through _another_ avenue…her brother (Just trust me on this). AU (obviously); canon couples (because anything else skeeves me out).**

**1.**

**~Bella~**

It seems like I've been doing nothing but pacing my room for three days now; ever since my brother and uncle left to go hiking. I saw it for the ruse that it was on my uncle's part. He hated us. He hated that he was saddled with being our caretaker when our mother died. 'Useless,' he called us; 'money suckers,' he'd seethe.

My brother and he constantly fought and it all got worse when my uncle snuck into my room late three nights ago, reeking of beer and cigarettes and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on, but my brother said it was stale sex. I never asked him how he knew that. I didn't want to know. Some things about my brother are best left alone.

That night my uncle had pinned me down on my bed, a crazed gleam in his eye. I struggled, but was no match for his strength. His hand was clamped over my mouth. He fumbled with both our clothes and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying so hard not to let the tears fall. With my eyes closed so tightly, I could only hear the door slam open and a whoosh of displaced air as I was suddenly free of him. I had scrambled into the corner, wrapped my arms around myself and rocked myself while I stared in shock as my brother threw my uncle into the dresser.

"I'll kill you this time," my brother ground out harshly.

"You'll have to if you think you're gonna stop me, boy," my uncle snarled back. "You're 18 tomorrow and out of my house, but she's still a minor, and I've got plans for her."

"She comes with me," my brother vowed.

"That's not what the law says."

"I don't give a shit what the law says."

"Of course not, you're uppity and stupid, just like your useless mother was." My uncle ranted on. My brother stayed firmly planted in front of me, an immovable wall, as always. "Why she saddled me with you two instead of our brother, I'll never know."

"I ask myself what she was thinking every day," my brother replied in a low voice.

I knew that voice. That voice was reserved only for those who messed with me. Back home in Arizona, I'd only heard it once or twice; the first time was at the homecoming dance when Josh Landon got a little too 'friendly' with me under the bleachers. It was not a friendly tone of voice. My brother was ferociously protective of his baby sister and he's always had an uncanny sense for when I was in trouble. Not that I was all that much of a baby. I was going to be 17 in two weeks.

My uncle glanced at the clock on my desk. "You're officially a man in half an hour. What do you say you and I take a little hike and settle this man to man once and for all?"

"My pleasure," my brother sneered.

"I'll meet you downstairs," my uncle replied, and left the room.

As soon our uncle crossed the threshold, my brother crouched down in front of me, quickly scanning my body for signs of injury.

"Are you alright? Did the son of a bitch hurt you?"

"I'm fine, but you can't go with him," I pleaded, grabbing his rock solid forearms. My brother worked out, obsessively. "I can't lose you; you're all I have left!"

"Bells, you'll never lose me. Only one of us is coming back and it's not going to be him. I swear I'll never leave you to him. I'm finishing this tonight and I'll be back for you. Don't leave this room."

"No, please!" I cried.

But he left me there. I screamed out for him and begged him not to leave with our monster of an uncle. I stayed locked in my room and huddled in my corner through the wee hours of the morning. The morning turned into afternoon; afternoon turned into evening. I didn't get much sleep during my long wait. I was pretty sure I was alone in the house as I paced and paced, waiting for…anything.

I finally moved to my worn sagging bed. I got hungry and thirsty, but I didn't care. For once, I obeyed my brother and never left the room. Finally, on the third morning, I scrambled to my feet when the front door slammed. My breath coming in heavy, nervous pants, I watched the door anticipating my brother's return.

But it wasn't him.

"It's over, little princess!" My uncle slurred from the living room. He was drunk and my brother wasn't here to protect me. What did he do to him? "It's just you and me, little girl and I've got plans for you! I'm finally going to make some money off of your sweet ass."

I ran to my window and threw it open. There was no way I could jump. I was on the third floor. If I tied my sheets together, I'd probably still have a two-story drop. I thought about taking my chances anyway. If I was dead, it was better than being at my uncle's mercy – or lack thereof.

What had happened to my brother? Was he alright? Did my uncle kill him? Was he lying out in the woods hurt?

I really _hated_ New Hampshire.

I could hear my uncle downstairs trashing the house. I didn't care; it wasn't my house. Nothing here meant anything to me, other than my brother. All our stuff was in storage in Arizona. My uncle wouldn't move any of it cross country and we had no access to any money our mother may have left us, though my uncle said she didn't leave us anything; it all went to him for our 'care'.

For two years we've been stuck in this hellhole. We had no friends here that meant anything to us. My brother ran with a crowd that was a little less than upstanding when he bothered to associate with anyone other than me. Back home in Arizona, he had been on the football team. They'd been talking about making him captain. He was very popular; everyone loved him. He was so goofy, so fun-loving. Girls all but threw themselves at his feet.

There was a girl he liked there. Her name was Kerry. He was just getting a little serious about her when our mom was killed by a drunk driver. We didn't know our father. He'd left us when I was only a few months old and my brother only had very vague memories of him. He didn't show up when our mom died either. So we got stuck with Uncle Lou.

We have another uncle in Washington and we wanted to go to his house. He wanted us to; he said we could. We loved him. He was nice. He had spoiled us rotten whenever he visited. He came to Arizona immediately after my brother called him to tell him about mom and he stayed with us the whole time. He had taken care of all the arrangements. He'd let me cry my eyes out into his shoulder and just kept his comforting arm around me. He had argued with Uncle Lou too in an attempt to take us back home with him, but Uncle Lou said that it was in mom's will that we were supposed to come with him. There was nothing anyone could do.

My brother had made it his mission in life to take care of me and protect me from Uncle Lou. Despite the influence of his less than savory friends, he got an after school job and bought a car. Every day when school got out, I went to the library and stayed there until my brother was done with work and came to pick me up. He wouldn't let me be alone with my uncle and the night they left was the reason why. It didn't take us long to realize what kind of man Uncle Lou really was. The police were frequent visitors to the house, but my uncle had a lot of money and greased a lot of palms, so nothing we said ever stuck. This house was a luxurious hell.

When we first moved here some kids tried to be friendly, but I'm painfully shy though, so they ended up thinking I was weird. Of course, with my brother's good looks, it didn't take long for the girls to start sniffing around him, but he was so focused on me, they ended up thinking he was a snob. My uncle also had a lot of influence in town and the kids all were of the opinion we were stuck up, and that we must have come from money too.

But we didn't. Our mother was a kindergarten teacher and we had survived on her salary. I didn't have a lot of friends in Arizona either, but I had a few. We had grown up with those kids, so some stuck around. And, of course, there were the legions of my brother's friends. In Phoenix, he always had a date on Saturday night; Friday night was always football games and Saturday was the after parties. His friends were nice to me, always laughing at how easily I blushed. The girls that hung around him treated me like either the indulgent little sister or arch rival for my brother's affections; I didn't care either way. I loved my goofy brother, but until Kerry, none of his girlfriends were ever around that long.

In New Hampshire, per my brother's instructions, I escaped to the library every day after school. Once I had my homework done, I absorbed myself in the books. 'Crazy little book worm,' my brother liked to call me. But those books saved me. They took me to faraway places; to other countries, other times, other worlds. They made me believe that there was good in the world…somewhere.

But I could find none of those thoughts and feelings now as I paced, waited, and tried to plan. My food stash was gone; I would have to leave this room soon. I had enough water since my room had an attached bathroom, but I couldn't go for long without food. I had no phone in my room and no computer. Those were in my brother's room and I still didn't know what had become of him.

I heard the heavy footsteps on the stairs. Each one an ominous thud that confirmed in my heart what my gut already suspected. The pounding on my door started. "It's time, little girl," my uncle called through the door. "I can ram the door in, but I'll only be madder when I get in there."

I didn't doubt that. "Where's my brother?" I demanded. My voice quavered, but I stood firm.

"Dead in the woods."

"Liar!" I screamed. He was lying. He _had_ to be.

"Last I saw him he was bleeding on the ground. I didn't stick around to watch him die. I had to get home to you, after all."

I was sure he was lying. But then where was my brother? Why hadn't he come? If it was true, I had nothing left to lose. I would make him pay!

In a blind rage, I flung open the door. My uncle was there with a very hunting large knife. He immediately swung it at my face, but I refused to be intimidated. That is until he shoved me up against the wall and his forearm pressed on hard my windpipe. He tossed the knife aside and started fumbling at my clothes again. There was nothing to stop him now. As the last air left my body, I was losing my will to care about what happened to me along with it. His free hand was everywhere. My vision blurred.

Suddenly, I fell to the floor and there was a loud crash; there was someone else here in the room. I was sure I was hallucinating, because I saw the new arrival pick up my uncle and toss him out the window like he weighed nothing at all. Then my savior jumped out the window after him. With a hand to my bruised throat, I stumbled over to look down.

To my blurred vision, the shape of the new man down below was my brother's, but I knew that couldn't be right. My brother, strong as he was, could not jump in and out of third story windows like he was jumping a track hurdle. It was a testament to how affected I was by the choking that I was seeing any of this at all. The newcomer stepped up and kicked my uncle where he lay prone on the ground. My uncle's body surged off the ground and flew back a good 15 feet.

Yes, I was dreaming. I was sure of it. That was impossible. My uncle weighed, according to my brother, a good 225 pounds, so he quite clearly couldn't be kicked by another human being across the lawn like he weighed no more than a cat. One second, the man was right under my window, the next he was crouched over the body of my uncle.

"Who are you?" I whispered huskily, the best my abused throat could manage. I gasped when he looked up, as if he heard me.

I was looking into the face of my brother, but it wasn't him. He was pale, very pale. He grinned devilishly up at me. When I saw his eyes, I shook my head frantically. His eyes were a demonic fiery red. I grabbed hold of the window sill trying to will myself to wake up from the nightmare.

"Bella…" My name echoed in the night and my brother's voice swirled around me.

I drew in more air with a gasp, my wounded throat burned, but I used all my strength to call his name.

"EMMETT!"

The last thing I remembered was the sensation of falling.

**~Emmett~**

My name was no more than a mere croak from my sister's lips, but I could hear it clear as a bell.

It was followed by a half gainer towards the ground.

Leave it to Bella to fall out a fucking window _after_ I saved her.

I caught her in time, of course. My new speed and keener senses made it effortless.

I could smell my uncle's fresh blood and I growled. The beat of my sister's heart echoed through my head like a drum. They'd said I wouldn't be strong enough to resist. But they were wrong.

Well, they were mostly wrong anyway.

I wanted to drain my uncle dry, but my sister just tripped out of a three-story window. I could hear Rosalie coming. I had a feeling that she was going to be pissed.

I jumped back up to my sister's window to remove myself from the temptation of my uncle's fresh corpse and Rosalie followed me a moment later, hissing over my shoulder as I laid Bella down on the bed.

"Emmett, we have to leave," she ordered.

"I know," I agreed. We couldn't stay here. They'd explained it all to me. No problem. I couldn't agree more.

I moved quickly around Bella's room, making hasty judgment calls on what to shove into a bag. There really wasn't anything here that she cared about anyway. I tried to remember what was essential to a human, what was essential to me only three days ago.

"What are you doing?" Rosalie demanded.

"Packing her a bag."

"Where are you taking her?"

"With me."

"Emmett! It's impossible," Rosalie insisted. She grabbed my hand, but being stronger, I shook her off. I felt kind of bad about it. She was a babe, after all. I was a little confused about this attachment I felt to her. I didn't even know her really, and yet, I felt as if I'd _always_ known her. When I had opened my eyes this morning, I thought, 'Well, shit. There you are.' It was very strange.

And things had only gotten stranger from there.

I was supposed to be hunting; I guess you could say I already did that. Taking down a full grown bear was…a new experience, but when I'd drained it dry, my head cleared and I headed straight for 'home'. No way was I leaving my sister with our slimy uncle.

He'd obviously picked up right where he left off. Had he been doing this to her for three days?

The mere thought lit a fire in me to rival my change. I should jump back down and tear him apart for daring to hurt her this time or any other. I should shred him into tiny little pieces for even thinking the things he has, let alone acting upon them. I wanted to. I could and it would only take seconds, just a few extremely satisfying seconds.

Carlisle was right. My throat burned around my sister. But Jasper was wrong; I did not feel the urge to kill her. My last thought as a human was that I had failed her and once I'd fed, I could only think of getting to her and getting her out of this hell. Beyond that, I had no plan.

"Emmett, she's human; she can't come with us. Don't you _feel_ it? Can't you _smell_ her?" Rosalie followed me around the room.

Once Bella's duffle bag was stuffed, I slung it over my shoulder.

"Bella," I said tapping my sister's cheek as gently as I could. "Bells, open your eyes. I'm here; I'm back. You're safe."

Her eyes fluttered behind their lids, but she didn't wake up.

"You _can't_ do this, Emmett, there are rules! If the Volturi find out, they'll kill her."

"They have to get through me first."

"They can do that with very little effort."

"My, my, Rose, just this morning you were telling me about love at first sight, now you don't sound so impressed! Is the honeymoon over already?" It would be a shame if it was because she was a goddess.

"Emmett, this is not the way things are done."

"Looks like I'm writing a new book."

I slid my arms underneath Bella and rose easily. She was always light to me, but now she felt ridiculously so; like my arms were full of soap bubbles, instead of my sister, who weighed maybe 115 pounds soaking wet. She cuddled into my chest and fiery thirst ripped through me. I swore and dropped my chin to my chest.

"Do you see?" Rosalie was all over it. "You are not strong enough. You'll kill her, Emmett."

"I have to be strong enough, Rosalie." I lifted my head and looked her straight in the eye. "I'm all she has."

"She doesn't have you anymore, Emmett, I'm sorry."

"That's unacceptable to me," I snapped and jumped back out of the window with Bella in my arms, landing softly on the lawn below. I still marveled at my strength and grace. I was never as klutzy as my train wreck of a sister, but a big guy like me wasn't exactly graceful. When I'd played football I was a lineman, not a 'back.

Alice and Jasper emerged from the woods as my feet hit the ground.

"Just put her down, Emmett, and Rosalie will take you back to the house. We'll make sure she's alright and we'll clean up here," Jasper said, and everything got creepy calm. Once I knew Bella was okay, mostly, I wasn't really all that amped up anymore, so I didn't really need to calm down, but now I felt positively mellowed out. Jasper could be fun to have around; he was kind of like vampire pot.

"I'm not leaving her," I said, as I shook my head and backed away. Jasper took a few cautious steps towards me. He's supposed to be the big expert on newborn vampires, but I think I was throwing him for a loop.

"Emmett, you'll never forgive yourself when you kill her," Rosalie pleaded.

"I'm not going to kill her!" I growled.

"Emmett -"

"He's right," Alice piped in, in her little pixie voice. Everyone looked at her. My understanding so far was that whatever Alice said was gospel. "I don't see him hurting her at all."

"Alice, how can that be? He's a newborn; she's a human." Jasper said.

"Because he knows he'll never forgive himself if he hurts her, so he's decided he's not going to," Alice replied with a shrug.

Everyone looked at her, seconds stretched by. "You're incredibly strange," I finally said, "but I'm glad you're on my side."

I headed for the trees and the three of them were hot on my heels. "That doesn't make this okay, Emmett!" Rosalie continued. Man, she was a nag. Why didn't I care about that? Girls like her cramped my style when I was human. Of course, when they looked like Rosalie did, I can't say that I really cared about what was coming out of their mouths. Then again, none of them ever really looked like Rose. I stopped abruptly and turned to her.

"Rose," I began.

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that," she sighed, or whatever it is we do since we don't have to breathe. Wait until Bella finds _that_ out.

"Put it in the suggestion box," I retorted. "Listen, all I want to do is make sure she's safe. I can't leave her here. Our uncle was a filthy pervert. If I left her alone with him for five minutes, he'd have her in a corner. I told you what happened the night you found me. He apparently picked up right where he left off as soon as he got back here. I have no idea what he did to her."

"And he's dead," she said, her voice was icy as she nodded to where our uncle lay. "You killed him for it, just like he deserved. And if you hadn't, I would have on general principal, please believe that. But you have to leave her now. You're dead to her. You _have_ to be. She can't survive in our world. She can't defend herself."

"She doesn't have to defend herself, I'll do that. It's what I do."

"It's what you _did_."

"Let's just stop a second," Jasper said.

They all circled around me again and we stopped in the woods. I was getting worried that Bella hadn't regained consciousness again. There were ugly bruises forming on her neck. Her heartbeat sounded strong, at least to me, but shouldn't she have woken up by now? She's never been a fainter, at least, I didn't think so. Things were pretty hazy to me now, just like Carlisle said they would be. That's why I wanted to act fast, before any other memories got any more dulled.

"Let's just hash this out," Jasper continued. "Emmett, what is it exactly you intend to do?"

"Take her to Uncle Charlie in Washington," I replied. It just came out of my mouth, but it was as good a plan as any at this point. "He's a cop there. We wanted to go with him when our mother died, but we ended up with his prick of a brother instead. He'll take her in and he'll take care of her."

"And then what?" Jasper asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you plan to do then? Do you plan to just leave her there?"

"I don't know. I didn't think that far ahead; I just want to get her there first."

"What are you going to tell her about where you've been?" He continued his questioning. "Isn't she going to ask? What are you going to say? Your eyes are bright red. As long as you don't feed on humans, they'll eventually turn golden like ours, but that will take months. How are you going to explain anything to her in the meantime? You have to get your story straight."

"I have no story to get straight," I replied. "I'm going to tell her the truth."

"You _can't_," Rosalie piped in again. "The Volturi -"

"They don't even know about me!" I roared. Birds flew out of the trees and the tension eased again under Jasper's strange influence. "They don't even know I exist; how are they going to find out about her?"

"They have talents," Alice explained pointedly. "We can't hide her forever. They will eventually find out about her and you'll be forced to turn her into one of us, or they'll kill her. No exposure. That's the law."

"I'll cross that bridge if I come to it," I said. I didn't remotely know everything there was about this new life of mine, so I wasn't about to make any sort of decision regarding bringing Bella over to join me in it. "Right now, I need to get her to a doctor – to Carlisle. She's been unconscious for a while now. She should have woken up."

"She's been unconscious for just under two minutes," Alice replied. "It's not that strange for a human and she's going to wake up soon."

"What are you talking about? Two minutes?"

"Things are faster for us," Rosalie said. She sounded a little more patient now. I guess Jasper calmed her down too. Handy guy. "Time moves differently for us."

"I still want Carlisle to look at her. You said he was a doctor, right? I'm going to take her to see him. Look at these bruises! That fucking guy was choking her."

"Alice?" Jasper asked. We all looked to the little pixie fortune teller.

"I don't know." She shook her head and shrugged. "I can't really see clearly; she's human."

"Okay, well, _I've_ decided not to kill her." I continued moving and they kept pace with me. "You all talk about this magical restraint you have, so she should be okay, right?"

"In theory," Rosalie said.

"Well, make it in practice. If I'm staying in this family, she's coming with me. For the foreseeable future, no pun intended for Alice, we're a package deal."

So there; that was that. I'm the one they were so worried about freaking out and killing her, right? I hadn't done that. Maybe I was working off the rush of killing my uncle, but so far, I'd kind of gotten a little used to this scorching in my throat that I started feeling once I was around her again. I was the X factor and I was doing okay. Everyone else was supposed to have some great restraint that enabled them to mingle with humans. They were just going to have to mingle with this one for a little while. If _I _could do it, then each one of them could do it

Right?

**A/N: What the! Emmett? Bet 'ya didn't see that coming. It's gonna be fun! Title makes sense now though, doesn't it?**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N #1: Not mine; no copyright infringement intended. Also, I'm sure you'll be able to pick out the lines boosted directly from Midnight Sun.**

**A/N #2: Make sure you show me some love. I mean, remember how long it's been since I've written in this fandom? Aren't you glad to see me? I came back because y'all are SOOOOOO good with the reviews! No seriously, that's why.**

**2.**

**~Edward~**

I heard my sisters and brother returning with the new one before they made it to the front door. I guess I really should have gone with them, but I stayed behind to talk to Carlisle and Esme about all this. We were all a little shocked when Rosalie showed up the other night carrying a bloody, barely breathing Emmett. She begged Carlisle to change him; she didn't think she had the strength to do it.

Carlisle's initial reaction was to treat Emmett, but it became clear pretty quickly that there was nothing Carlisle could do for him, so he agreed to the change. Carlisle would never do this to someone who had another choice and Rosalie had clearly, and quite shockingly I'll admit, found her mate. I saw it happen before with Carlisle and Esme and was quite stunned to discover it happened to Rosalie. I didn't think she could feel like that. She was the last newborn we had in the family and that was decades ago. Alice and Jasper weren't new when they came to us.

Alice saw Rosalie coming, of course, so we weren't completely blindsided. However, Rosalie's appearance home with Emmett was still a bit of a blow to Carlisle. Though he wouldn't admit it and he tried to hide his thoughts on the matter, it confirmed that Rosalie and I would never be anything to each other but sister and brother; it just wasn't like that for us.

Emmett seemed alright so far. I hadn't spent too much time in his presence yet. He had typical newborn thoughts when he woke up. They weren't always entirely clear to me, which was perplexing to say the least. I couldn't recall ever really having a problem hearing someone else and I didn't really have any theories into it at the moment.

Now my siblings' thoughts were flying a mile a second; they were hard to catch, as excited as they all were, but what I was mostly getting from them was that they were bringing back a human. The condition of the human, I couldn't ascertain.

"Uh-oh, Carlisle," I said, rising off the couch and moving to the front door. "Looks like we might have another one."

"You've got to be kidding me," Esme replied.

I opened the door as my siblings raced in. The very second they passed me by I ceased to pay any attention to what was going on in their minds. The human's scent hit me like a wrecking ball, like a battering ram. There was no image violent enough to encapsulate the force of what happened to me in that moment.

In that instant, I was nothing close to the human I'd once been; no trace of the shreds of humanity I'd managed to cloak myself in remained. I was a predator. She was my prey. There was nothing else in the whole world, but that truth. I was a vampire, and she had the sweetest blood I'd smelled in 80 years.

I hadn't imagined such a scent could exist. If I had known it did, I would have gone searching for it long ago. I would have combed the planet for her. I could imagine her taste…

"Edward, are you alright?" Esme asked cautiously as Emmett babbled on to Carlisle – something about the human in his arms.

Thirst burned through my throat like fire. My mouth was baked and desiccated. The fresh flow of venom did nothing to dispel that sensation. My stomach twisted with the hunger that was an echo of the thirst. My muscles coiled to spring.

"No, Edward!" Alice suddenly shouted. In her mind, I saw myself pouncing on Emmett, tearing the girl from his arms, and sinking my teeth into her neck. She grabbed Jasper and they sprang for me. I didn't resist as they dragged me from the house.

**~Emmett~**

What the hell?

I was momentarily distracted from my explanation to Carlisle by the sudden exit of Edward, Alice, and Jasper.

"What happened?" I asked looking at the remaining faces in the room.

"Edward seems to have had some sort of reaction to your sister's scent," Carlisle replied. "Curious. I can't say I've ever seen him react like that."

"Should we go after him?" Esme asked concerned.

"Alice and Jasper have it in hand for now," Carlisle replied, though he looked worriedly toward the front door, then back down at Bella. "It looks like he did some damage to her wind pipe."

"I don't know if he…did anything else to her." I growled. "I haven't had the chance to ask her."

"Poor dear," Esme cooed as she stroked a hand down Bella's hair. "Let's put her in the guest room. We were going to give that room to you, Emmett -"

"He can stay with me," Rosalie immediately jumped in. Well, well. Nobody was going to hear me complain.

"She'll need new clothes; these are all torn." Esme murmured, running a hand over Bella's shirt.

She didn't seem the least bit interested in freaking out over Bella being human. As a matter of fact, Carlisle had yet to voice any concern about it either. "Rosalie, would you mind taking care of that, since Alice is a little busy?" Esme asked.

"Sure," Rosalie unlaced the bag from around my neck and streaked off upstairs ahead of us. I followed Carlisle and Esme into to the room I had woken up in this morning. It was a mess before from all the blood I was losing at the time; it was spotless now. I laid my sister gently on the bed and stepped aside, just a bit, to let Carlisle in. Rosalie was muttering under her breath about what I had packed for Bella. Apparently, I'd done a pretty crappy job.

Carlisle did a quick scan of her body. "It looks like her neck took the worst of it."

Bella's eyes started fluttering.

"What's her name?" Carlisle asked me over his shoulder.

"Isabella. But don't call her that or she'll take your head off. She prefers Bella."

"Bella?" He called to her. She started to move her head side to side. "Bella, it's alright now, you can wake up."

"Sometimes she's a little cranky when she wakes up, just so you know…" I trailed off. Esme smiled warmly at me, but Carlisle merely looked bemused.

"Here she comes," Carlisle smiled as Bella finally opened her eyes. She squinted a bit against the light and then took in the strange faces around her. Her eyes went wide in alarm.

"I'm here, Bells, I'm here," I said quickly.

I didn't think; I just quickly moved to her side. She screamed, but because of the injury to her throat, it was a more cracked sounding and she scrambled to the top of the bed.

"Bella, it's alright. He's gone."

"I don't think that's it," Carlisle said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You moved to her side at your new speed. It was too quick for her to process. It's like you just appeared there. Plus, your eyes are still red."

"Oh shit, Bells, I'm sorry." I reached out for her as slowly as I could. "I probably look like something out of a horror movie. It's still me, and I'm going to keep you safe. Uncle Lou is never going to hurt you again." I decided at that point it would be counter-productive to tell her I killed him, even though she had probably figured that out already.

"Where are we?" It was a strain for her to speak. I still might go tear that asshole's body apart. I swear to God, if he did permanent damage to her…

"This is Carlisle and Esme and we're at their house. And this is Rosalie. There are others and you'll meet them soon, I guess. They've been taking care of me."

"What happened to you? Where did you go?"

"Emmett," Rosalie said. "_Think_ about this. You really could cause a lot of problems."

"I have thought about it, Rosalie," I muttered back. "But I don't want to hit her with it all at once either." I turned back to Bella. "I will explain everything, but it's a lot to take in all at once. Carlisle is a doctor. He took care of me. Uncle Lou and I duked it out real good in the woods. He pulled a fucking knife, messed me up, and he left me for dead. Carlisle saved me and I went back for you."

Her eyes moved briefly to Carlisle and then back to me. "What's wrong with your eyes?"

"It's part of what happened to me, but they won't look like this always."

"He damaged them?"

"It's…listen, Bells, I really don't think you can hear all the gory details just yet. Let's just focus on you right now and we'll circle back to me. Clearly you can see I'm fine, right?"

"How can you be 'fine' with red eyes? Em, your _eyes_ are _red_!"

"And I'll explain it later," I snapped. She flinched and I immediately felt awful. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Like I said, I promise to explain it. I know it's confusing and scary, but I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. Right now, Carlisle needs to know what happened to you. He needs to know if Uncle Lou…did anything to you."

She blushed furiously and I dropped my chin to my chest again and squinted my eyes shut, waiting for the pain to pass.

"Oookkaayy," I drawled, trying to get it together. The pain of being around her wasn't easy, but I was determined to overcome it.

"Emmett," Carlisle asked, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Why don't you take a minute outside?"

"No," I ground out. "I'm good. I just forgot she did that. She does that a lot. It used to be a game to me to see how often I could get her to blush; I probably shouldn't play that one anymore."

Bella likewise dropped her gaze. "No, he didn't do anything like that. I stayed in my room the whole time. I think he pretty much stayed away for three days. When he got back, it sounded like he was wrecking stuff and the downstairs of the house is probably a mess. That was the first time he even tried to get in." She swallowed a bit and winced at the pain. The bruises on her neck were ghastly.

"You're sure?" I asked. "If you want me to leave the room so you can talk to Carlisle alone, I will."

"God!" she yelped, or as much as she could with her raw throat. Her face was brighter than my eyes. "Just drop it. There was nothing like that. You made it in time." She flapped her hands at me and then hugged them to her sides. I smirked a bit, she was mortified. Good. I was elated to see she was still sweet.

"So the only thing that's hurt is your throat then?" I asked and she nodded.

"I can give you something for the pain, Bella," Carlisle said gently. "Mostly, you'll just have to baby it for a few days."

"Are you hungry?" Esme asked. "We could get probably get you soup or something."

"I don't want to be any trouble," Bella whispered. Of course she didn't.

"It's no trouble, sweetie." Esme smiled. She ran a light hand down Bella's hair and I think we were all surprised. It just seemed so natural and Bella didn't flinch away. Esme seemed like the motherly type, which really was just what Bella needed. My memories of our mother were, unfortunately, fading quickly now. It was the first time I really understood that Bella was all I had left of my human life. But I could still recall, for the moment, that our mother could be a little flaky and Bella would pick up a lot of slack, or as much as a 14 year old really could.

"I'm happy to take care of it," Esme continued. And you could tell she was. Then she dropped her voice and sped up her speech when she turned to me. "You'll need to tell us what she eats. We'll have to go shopping for her. We don't keep food in the house, or anything else humans need on a day to day basis."

I nodded. "I'm having a hard time remembering, but I'll ask her if I have to."

"Human memories fade, Emmett," Carlisle said.

I shot a quick glance at Bella to see if she had any reaction to the statement that I might be something other than human now, but she didn't seem to be following the conversation. In fact, she didn't even seem to be aware there was a conversation even going on. This must be one of those 'vampire speed things.' I started thinking it would be a challenge to constantly remember to slow down when I was speaking to Bella, or moving at a human pace when she was near me. This was definitely going to be an experience.

"You might be able to remember things a little more clearly or for a longer period of time with Bella around, but you can expect to have few memories of your human life. We'll get you through it, though," Carlisle continued. "Now, what is your plan for your sister?"

"Our other uncle lives in Washington. He's a great guy and he'll take her in. He wanted us before when our mom died, but Uncle Feckless won somehow." I said and glanced over at Bella. She was looking around the room with weary eyes. She was probably getting pretty tired and she really needed to get changed out of those clothes. "All I have to do is get her there. He lives in Forks."

"You've come to us at an interesting time, Emmett," Carlisle said with a small smile. "We don't stay in any one location for any real length of time and our tenure here was up. We hadn't decided yet where to head next, but we were debating about Alaska. There's another family we know there that lives the way we do. We've been to Forks before and did quite well there. Rosalie, Esme, what do you think?"

"It's certainly suited to us; and it's been nearly 60 years since we've been there. I would imagine we're safe enough going back," Esme said.

"It's the most sunless spot in the North America; it's perfect." Rosalie added.

"Wait, are you talking about _moving_ there?" I asked, confused. "That seems a little…over the top to do for the new guy."

"If you're joining our family, your vote gets just as much weight as anyone else's," Carlisle replied. "No one member is more important than any other and we do what's best for the whole. We've lived in Forks before; we have a house there already. It's not much trouble. You'll also be close enough to keep an eye on your sister since you seem reluctant to give her up."

"Carlisle, I've been trying to explain to him about the Volturi -" Rosalie never missed an opportunity, did she?

"Yes, well, that is a real fear and we'll have to be on our guard." Carlisle blew her right off. I wondered how long it would take until I could talk like that to her. "There's a lot to discuss. For one thing, your brother's reaction when he smelled Bella is a very big concern. Her scent has affected him in a way I've never seen before from him. We'll need to figure that out and take precautions there, as well."

"He is going to be able to control himself around her, right?" My voice was steel. I knew I was the new kid on the block, but I didn't bring a housewarming dish with me either.

"No harm will come to her, Emmett." This came from Esme.

I turned to her and was quite moved by how earnest she looked. No one seemed to be able to say what would happen with Edward, but I believed Esme. Plus, I had no intention of leaving my sister's side until I was sure no one else was going to hurt her. Who were these people? And why were they so hell-bent to help two kids they didn't even know?

Carlisle and Esme definitely seemed to be capable of restraint. They had both actually touched Bella. Rose seemed to be holding up pretty well too. The others weren't around her long enough for me to form an opinion on them yet. At the moment, Edward definitely couldn't handle it. Bella tends to get hurt a lot; and blood typically accompanies her injuries, so the first time that happens around here will be the true test, I imagine, for all of us. I should probably warn them all about that.

"We'll start making arrangements to head west," Carlisle said. He held out a hand to Esme, indicating that they were leaving the room.

"You'll let me know as soon as possible what she needs, Emmett," Esme said to me. "I'll go out now and try to find things that will be easy on her throat, but I don't want to buy anything she doesn't like."

"Okay," I nodded. "Thank you, for everything."

"You're welcome here, Emmett," she smiled in return. "Both of you; we're happy to have you."

Wow. That one was the real deal.

They left the room and closed the door behind them. Rosalie stayed behind. She moved to a chair in the corner of the room and stayed out of the way. I think she was still afraid I was going to freak out and eat my sister. I didn't know how to explain to her that though that may happen with another human, it just wasn't going to happen to Bella.

"What's going on?" Bella croaked.

"They're going to go get you some soup." I sat down at the end of the bed and patted her leg. When she reached down and rubbed where my hand made contact I realized that one, I must have felt very different to her; and two, I probably patted her harder than I intended.

"I packed you a bag," I continued.

"He did a terrible job," Rosalie said. "But Alice and I will take care of getting you more appropriate clothes. Alice loves to shop. Plus, you'll need stuff suitable to the Washington climate, as will Emmett."

"Washington?" Bella looked at me. Amazing; she didn't catch _any_ of that conversation. I wondered if we spoke to fast, too low or what. Probably both.

"I'm going to take you to Uncle Charlie," I told her.

"Are you going to leave me there?"

"Well, it sounds like we'll be close by," I looked to Rosalie and she nodded. "I don't know that you living with all of us is a real good idea on a long-term basis. You'll understand after I explain everything. But I promise I won't be far. Now, why don't you get out of those clothes? I'll step right outside the door and be back in -"

"Can't you just turn around, Em?" she asked quickly.

"There's a bathroom you can use right through that door there, Bella," Rosalie said pointing to a door in the corner. I picked up the duffel bag, dropped it on the bed, and Bella started rummaging through it. She looked up at me with a frown. "I know I'm no Milan model, but nothing in here matches!"

"Girls." I rolled my eyes. "They're going to get you more stuff. I was in a bit of hurry to get out of there. You're lucky I even thought to do that!"

Scowling at me, she grabbed the bag, and dragged it off to the bathroom. I turned back to Rosalie. "What am I going to do about the uncle I killed tonight? And now she and I have both just gone missing."

"We'll put Jasper and Edward on it. They'll take care of it," she assured me. "If you'd done things the way I told you to, you'd have simply gone missing. After some time had passed, your missing persons case would have been closed and you'd have been presumed dead, just another statistic. It happened to all of us. However, your insistence at remaining in touch with your sister and, I assume now, your uncle, might be a little more problematic."

"You're just not going to let that go, are you?"

She got up out of the chair and was in front of me in a flash. I arched a brow at her as her hands slid up my chest to my shoulders. This one was certainly a go-getter. Again, not that I was complaining or anything.

"But, you're going to discover there are a lot of advantages to being a vampire, Emmett." Her voice was husky and my head was starting to spin with the hotness of her. She pressed her lips to mine and my whole body felt like it suddenly lit on fire. That was certainly something I didn't think I'd ever felt before. It was like an awakening. I knew _nothing_ about this girl other than the simple fact that she was now _mine_. Of that, I was damn certain.

"I look forward to you introducing me to those advantages," I murmured as I moved in and kissed her again. I pulled her closer by her hips and she curled a long leg around my waist. Oh dear God, I might actually be out of my league!

"She's finishing up in there," she whispered and stepped away. Once again, my sister's timing sucked. And now I was all sorts of churned up inside. Carlisle told me earlier that we don't sleep. I was definitely beginning to see the advantage of that.

Bella stumbling across the room was the bucket of cold water to the face I needed. She'd changed into a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt that looked just fine to me. She had also pulled her hair up, which made the bruises against her pale skin pop out. I reached out quickly to catch her as she tripped, once again, over nothing. Bella had the grace of an elephant in a china shop.

"You're freezing," she said, looking down at where our hands were linked.

"Yeah," was all I said in response.

"You also feel very different."

"That too."

She yawned loudly and I helped her get settled in the bed.

"You'll stay, right?" she whispered hoarsely.

"Absolutely."

"Promise?"

"I said I would, didn't I?"

She curled up under the covers and I stretched out next to her, leaning up against the headboard.

"Em?"

"Yeah, Bells?"

"Thanks for coming back for me."

"I promised I would."

"Uncle Lou said you were dead."

"Well, it was something like that," I muttered.

"I don't know what that means." Before I could answer her, she drifted off to sleep. I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead and it felt like lightning shot down my throat. I pushed my palms against my eyes and groaned.

"You really are an anomaly, you know," Rosalie said. She was seated back in the chair in the corner.

"Why's that?" I asked, once I had gotten a hold of myself.

"Emmett, she should be dead," Rosalie said forcefully, gesturing to Bella with her palm turned up. "Newborn vampires _cannot_ resist the call of human blood. It's not done; it's not even really possible."

"What makes you think I'm going to resist anybody else?" I countered. "All my effort's going into just resisting _her_. And what the hell happened with Edward before?"

"Each human has a scent distinctive to themselves," she shrugged. "My guess is Bella smelled better to him than other humans do. I'm not really sure. I know _you_ smelled better to me than anyone else ever has."

"Why'd you bring me to Carlisle? Why didn't you just let me die? You could have had a feast."

"I think we were meant for each other," she said softly. "All I know is when I saw you lying on the ground and I looked at your face, I just thought, 'this one can't die; anyone but him.' So I brought you to Carlisle because I knew I wouldn't have had the strength to turn you on my own. Carlisle is very old. He's got more willpower than any of us. He works around humans in the hospital all the time. He's practically immune to the call of their blood. I've never met anyone else like him."

"He seems like a pretty upstanding guy."

"He is," she smiled. "I give him a hard time a lot. I don't mean to, but it's just the way I am, I guess. He has a lot of patience with me. Until I found you the other night, I always wished he'd never changed me. I wished he just let me die."

"Why? What's your story?"

"It's a lot like your sister's, only nobody saved me in time. Nobody was there to throw my assailants out the window."

"There was more than one?" I asked evenly.

"Was. First thing I did when I woke up was hunt them down and slaughter them."

"So you really would have killed my uncle for me?"

"Yes." She said it with absolute conviction. "Carlisle wouldn't have been happy, and I wouldn't have drunk from him, but I would have killed him all the same. I can't tolerate his kind."

"I'm sorry that happened to you," I said softly, looking up at the ceiling and trying to get a handle on my emotions. I was sorry that had happened to her. And I was a lot happier that it _didn't_ happen to my sister.

"It was another lifetime ago." She passed it off, but it seemed like it still affected her. "I liked being human though. I wanted children. I liked the idea of growing old with someone. Now that will never happen for me."

"Me either."

"Are you mad at me for bringing you to Carlisle?"

I thought about it. "No, not really. I don't know when you were changed, but guys my age nowadays don't think of all that stuff. I didn't give any real thought to what I was going to do with my life. In Phoenix, I was aiming for a football scholarship, but when our mom died and we came here, and Uncle Lou's true colors were revealed, all I wanted to do was to get the hell out of there; get Bella out of there. I worked after school and saved every penny so on my 18th birthday I could split with my sister. My plan was to find an apartment somewhere and let Bella finish school. I was going to work until she graduated and then…well, I didn't really know what. I probably would have joined the army or something. I guess if I had a real plan, maybe I would feel robbed in some way like you do, but that wasn't the case with me."

"Well, you better find out if your sister has a plan. If the Volturi find out about her, they'll either force us to change her or they'll kill her. No exposure. No exceptions."

"Who the _hell_ are the Volturi and why are you so God damn afraid of them?"

"They're like the royal family, like the vampire mafia. Carlisle knows them well. You do _not_ cross them."

"I can't think about them now. I just need to get her to Washington. Uncle Charlie will take care of her. Maybe it won't be an issue after that."

"Maybe." Though she didn't sound at all convinced.


	3. Chapter 3

**3.**

**~Edward~**

"So," Alice said as I drew in deep breaths of fresh air, "it seems we've got a situation."

"Who is she?" I demanded.

My head had finally cleared, though the impact of that scent lingered. I still had the memory of it in my head; the taste of it on the back of my tongue. That's never happened to me before. Never before had I experienced a scent so punishing.

"Emmett's sister," Jasper answered.

"Why is she _here_?" I asked fiercely. "What in God's name made him bring her to us? Is she dying?"

"No," Alice said. "Rosalie tried to talk him out of it, we all did, but he refused. Their uncle was abusive. Emmett refused to leave his sister with him. He's going to take her to Washington. In fact, Carlisle has just decided we'll return there to live."

"Over this _girl_?" I ground out. I was furious. I was angry at my reaction to her, that she was able to penetrate my self-control so easily; I was angry that Carlisle had apparently decided we were moving again without consulting us all. I was angry that despite my violent reaction to her, I was curious to see her again, to get a better look at her, to get _any_ look at her.

"Not entirely; it was time." Alice reminded me softly. Jasper was doing his level best to calm me down, and it was helping to an extent.

"How has he not killed her himself? He's been awake less than 24 hours; he should have killed her by now!"

"It's like nothing I've ever encountered, Edward," Jasper said. "He's been able to resist her. Of course, it looks incredibly painful for him, but he said he wouldn't hurt her and Alice has seen that he won't. That's not to say any other human is safe from him. He did kill the uncle, though not by feeding on him."

"Am I the _only_ one tormented?" In my anger, I uprooted a tree and sent it crashing against another. Neither Alice nor Jasper even blinked. "She doesn't affect _anyone_ else like this? Jasper?"

Perhaps it was a little unfair to just assume Jasper had a problem with her scent. He was the one who struggled the most to maintain our diet. But I had to know. I was usually so in control of myself.

"She doesn't smell any more appealing to me than any other human."

I looked to Alice.

"Sorry, Edward." She shook her head in sympathy.

"I don't know if I can go back there; I don't know if I can be close to her like that." I began to pace the small clearing we were in. I was restless now, like a caged animal.

"You'll need to hunt for sure," Alice began. "And you'll definitely have to hunt more often than you do now. If you can keep your thirst satisfied, you might be able to do it."

I stopped my pacing and looked at her, trying to see into her mind. There was something she wasn't letting me see. I knew what it was like to feel blocked. Normally, I tried to give my family all the privacy I could and it wasn't always easy, but I could also tell when they intentionally blocked me. The others weren't as good at it as Alice was though; probably because her talent was, like mine, also based in the mind, but she was most certainly closed down now. I was so frustrated.

I shoved my hands into my hair and began to pace again. "You might as well tell me what you see. Sooner or later, you'll slip and I'll know anyway."

"You're not going to hurt her, Edward," she said positively. "It won't be easy for you though and you'll hunt a lot, almost every night. But you won't hurt her because she's going to be important to all of us, you included."

"She's human." I reminded her.

"We'll break the rules for her; she's going to be worth it," Alice continued. "She's going to be my friend one day, Edward. I'm going to love her; we all will and because of that, we will fight for her. And you and Emmett are going to be as thick as thieves. Emmett's going to be really good for us. He's strong and he'll keep the strength he has now. I think it's just Bella he can resist. Listen to me, Edward; you're _not_ going to kill her."

I groaned in frustration. "I'm going to hunt," I announced tersely.

"I'll catch up to you," Jasper replied and I dove into the night.

**~Alice~**

As soon as Edward was gone, Jasper turned to me. "_Can_ he resist her?"

"He has to, Jasper; he's going to fall in love with her."

To say he was stunned is an understatement.

"You're certain?"

I nodded in answer. "I had to be positive for him. If he thinks I've seen it, he'll work harder to resist her. _I've_ decided he won't kill her so _my_ path has to be the one to prevail. I refuse to have it any other way."

"You know I'm not as good at blocking him as you are," he reminded me.

"You'll have to be," I smirked. "At least until he's figured out how to successfully resist her."

"You're a crafty little pixie," he chuckled. He swept me up for a quick, passion filled kiss.

"Take him with you to deal with the uncle and the house," I instructed when he put me down. "Make it look believable. It'll give him something to do with his aggression."

"Yes, ma'am," he drawled before he disappeared into the night.

I smiled as I turned and headed home. What a peculiar change in circumstances for our family; and it was curious that I hadn't seen it coming, not at all. I could only assume that it was because a human was involved. But now I wasn't so blinded. I could see Bella would stumble her way into our hearts – she was _awfully_ clumsy after all. She'd be a challenge for sure, since those stumbles were guaranteed to result in her blood being shed.

It was interesting the way Emmett was so successfully able to resist her like he was. Unfortunately, I did see him slipping up in the future, though not with her. We'd do everything we could to help him, but one day he'll be tested on his own; he'll fail once, but then he'll rally himself and stay on the wagon, so to speak. 

Edward was the bigger problem. Leave it to Edward to find a human for a mate. The future I saw for Bella was as a vampire. I wondered how Emmett would handle that. Would he want his sister to be like him? He'd seemed to adapt well so far to his new life, but then again, he was only one day old.

"How's Edward?" Esme asked, as I walked up to the house. She was coming up the walkway with bags in her hands.

We entered the house and I was immediately assailed by Bella's scent. I took a deep breath and let the burn roll down my throat. I would need to accustom myself to constantly feeling the burn. We all would. I kept hoping one day I would be like Carlisle – practically immune to the temptation of humans. I liked them. I liked how everything was always so desperate for them, so dire. Was it because they knew they only had a limited time on this Earth? They worried about the silliest things.

"Is that food?" I asked, wrinkling up my nose.

"Bella's going to need to eat." She answered, smiling at my obvious disgust.

"How can you stand it?"

"I'll do what I have to." She replied. She walked toward the kitchen and I followed behind, smiling at her obvious mothering instincts. I hoped Bella was ready because Esme was going to go mama-nuts. "You didn't answer my question. How's Edward?"

"Suffering quite a bit," I admitted. Esme sucked in her breath in distress. I felt bad, but I couldn't lie to her either. "He'll learn how to do deal with it, even excel at it, Esme, I promise."

"What have you seen?" She asked, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye as she moved through the kitchen to put food away in the empty cabinets.

It occurred to me that I had no idea what she was going to serve this food on, or cook it in. She scrutinized the package labels as she went along to make sure she refrigerated what she was supposed to. She opened the refrigerator door and frowned.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Isn't it supposed to be cold in here?"

I walked over and leaned down like she was, waving my hand inside the refrigerator. "I think so."

I easily pulled the refrigerator out and saw that the cord was lying on the floor. I plugged it in and rolled the refrigerator back to its original place.

"How long does it take to get cold?" Esme continued to frown at the appliance as it hummed and filled the kitchen with a very unfamiliar noise.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "But probably not too long."

Esme didn't look like she trusted the refrigerator very much, but sheput away the food she deemed having to be chilled regardless.

"Edward?" she prompted.

"It'll be very difficult for him, but he'll learn to resist her," I answered. I debated a second over telling Esme what I saw and then decided to go for it, just in case we needed her support later for any reason. "He's going to fall in love with her, Esme, she's his mate."

She stopped what she was doing and turned slowly to me. "You're certain?"

I nodded.

"Edward's going to fall in love with a human?" Carlisle entered the kitchen, having heard us from the other room.

"Yes. I can't say for certain when, but he will. He'll try to fight it, but he won't be successful. In the end, she'll be very important to us."

"It seems she already is," Carlisle mused, glancing above us where Bella slept in a bed guarded by Emmett.

"Have you ever seen anything like that, Carlisle?" I asked. I didn't have to tell him I was referring to Emmett's amazing willpower over killing his sister.

"Other than myself after I was changed, I can't say I have." He frowned as he thought over the very long course of his life. Carlisle was over 600 years old, but of course he didn't look a day over 23.

"Alice, Bella needs clothes." Esme turned to me. "Emmett didn't bring her much, plus she'll need appropriate attire for the Washington climate. I trust you'll take care of what she needs." She knew I would have seen the decision to move and that I didn't need any explanations.

"It would be my very great pleasure!" I beamed.

I was going to get to work immediately. The sun was rising and the day was to be overcast, so I could head to the mall. I didn't knock before entering the guest room. I already knew that Bella was asleep and Emmett and Rosalie were on opposite sides of the room. I could cut the sexual tension with a knife. Poor Emmett, he had no idea what he was about to experience.

"Something we can do for you?" Emmett greeted as I streaked over to the duffel bag and rifled through, looking for Bella's size on the labels.

"I'm going shopping for her." I announced. "Get up, big boy. I might as well take care of you, too."

"I'm sorry?" He arched an eyebrow at me.

"I need your size."

"I don't get a say in what I'm going to wear?"

I faced him head on and hissed at him. How dare he have so little faith in me! He looked surprised and amused that I dared to take him on. He stood up and towered over me.

"You may be bigger than me, rookie, but I promise, you'll never get one over on me." I looked him right in the eye. 

"She's right," Rosalie supplied. "No one ever beats her. She can see what you're going to do before you do it. Don't even bother."

"Really?" He looked intrigued.

"Care to take it outside and have a go?" I challenged.

"No," he said. "But it's not because I'm afraid." He glanced back to the bed where his sister still slept.

"I know," I shrugged and walked over to the other side of the bed to look down at Bella and study her. Emmett hissed when I pulled back the blankets. "Calm down," I replied. "I'm just getting an idea of her skin tone and body type. I want to make sure I get her clothes that look right."

"You see the future, right?" he asked.

"I see the course people are on while they're on it," I explained. "When they change their mind, the future changes. It's subjective; it can always change, nothing's set in stone."

"Okay, so as things stand now, do you see any of us hurting my sister?"

I smiled slowly at him. He was a very caring guy. It was nice to see. He was going to fit in well with our family.

"Not right now," I assured him. I wasn't about to tell him Edward was going to fall in love with his sister. I imagined that would fly like a lead balloon. Vampire or human, I would think any suitor of Bella's was going to be, well, downright miserable around Emmett.

"None of us are going to hurt her, Emmett," I continued. "I know Edward freaked before, and it's going to take him some time to get used to her, but in the end, he'll be the safest one for her."

"What does that mean?" He demanded, but I merely smiled innocently and strolled out of the room.

**~Bella~**

I was achy when I woke up. Then I realized it was because half of my bed was taken up by a tree.

That didn't seem right. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sat up in the bed.

"Jesus, it's about time you woke up."

Emmett tossed the magazine he was reading on the night stand next to the bed and scrutinized my face.

"I had the most bizarre dream," I replied, as I tried to let my brain catch up.

My throat was sore and when I rubbed a hand along it I found that the skin was tender too. When I turned to look at Emmett, really looked at him, I saw that he still had the same bright red eyes he did in my so-called dream.

"It all happened, didn't it?"

"`Fraid so, Bells," he said with a slight wince. "But don't be afraid. No one is going to hurt you. I won't allow it."

"That's not something I've ever worried about with you around." 

He seemed happy with that. I rose up off the bed and dragged myself into the bathroom to take care of all my morning needs. A quick peek into the shower showed that everything I needed was there, if not my preferred brand, but I didn't care. A shower seemed like heaven to me, so I turned the water on hot and turned to look at myself in the mirror.

What a fright. My hair was a bird's nest and I was surprised Emmett didn't make fun my atrocious bed head. The bruises around my throat were rather ugly. I wasn't positive, but I was pretty sure my brother had killed our uncle.

Killed him by tossing him out of a third-story window and kicking him around like a soccer ball for a while.

I remembered how he instantly appeared in front of me with those blazing red eyes. His skin was freezing and rock hard. What possible explanation could there be for all of that?

I peeled my clothes off and climbed in under the spray. I stood there for a few minutes letting the hot water fall over me. Before I knew it, I was crying. Sobbing my heart out. My uncle was dead, something I was discovering that I wasn't really upset about, something was wrong with my brother, and I had no idea what was going to happen to us now.

Emmett said he was going to take me to Washington to live with Uncle Charlie and that he would be close by. What if Uncle Charlie didn't want me? He did when our mother died, but that was two years ago. And how were we going to explain what happened to Uncle Lou? Were we going to be able to just _leave_ New Hampshire? I was still a minor. Wasn't anyone going to want to talk to us? Weren't the police going to look for us when they discovered he was dead? If they did, Uncle Charlie would find out about it pretty fast, he was a cop.

I was starting to think Emmett didn't really think this plan through very well.

When I finished with my crying jag, I washed up, taking my time to massage my muscles as I went. I gave myself a thorough cleansing, doing my best to wash away the last two years in preparation for the unknown ahead. I knew logically it would take a lot more than one good shower to move past the events of the last two years at my uncle's house, the constant fear of being alone with him, dealing with a drunk, the verbal abuse, smiling for his friends and colleagues and pretending nothing was wrong.

I shut off the water and toweled myself dry. I realized I didn't bring any clean clothes in with me, so I just put back on what I slept in for now. I dragged a comb through my hair, yanking out the knots. After I brushed my teeth, I took inventory. I felt human again.

When I went back into the bedroom, Emmett was in the same spot. "There're clean clothes in the bag. Alice went to buy you more."

"Who's Alice?"

"Rosalie's sister."

I didn't see the beautiful blonde in the room. I didn't know if he and I were alone in the house or not, but we were alone in the room and it was time for answers.

"Emmett -" I began.

"How about breakfast?" he cut me off.

"How about explaining things to me first?"

"Aren't you hungry?"

"Not really."

"How is that possible? When was the last time you ate?"

I paused for a second. I had no idea really, but I wasn't hungry.

"I don't know, but I'm not hungry right now."

"Esme bought you oatmeal. She figured that'd be easy on your throat."

"Stop stalling, Emmett," I snapped. He arched a slow brow at me. It was his 'oh no you did not take that attitude with _me_' look. "You promised to explain everything and it's time."

"What exactly do you want me to explain?"

"I want to know what happened in the woods with Uncle Lou. I want to know why your eyes are red. I want to know why your skin is cold and feels hard as a rock. I want to know how you got in and out of a third-story window without some sort of ladder; how you tossed a 225 pound man around like he weighed no more than a pillow."

"You know what's always pissed me off about you, Bells?"

"How I don't miss the details?"

"You don't miss a God damn thing!" He threw his hands up and sprang off the bed. At least, I _think_ he sprang off the bed. He got up so fast it was a blur to me. "If I remember correctly, you got that from Mom."

"What do you mean, if you remember correctly?"

"That's part of the change."

"What change?"

"Why don't you sit down?" He suggested, gesturing to the chair in the corner.

"I'm fine."

"Bella, sit down." This time I raised my brow at him. It wasn't often he snapped at me and if _I _remembered correctly, he'd done it quite a few times in the last 24 – 48 hours. Rather than get snippy back at him like I normally did, I sat down.

"Uncle Lou really fucked me up in the woods," he began.

My heart began to race. Obviously he was alright since he was standing right in front of me, but the thought of him hurt in the woods, all by himself, made me nuts. His head shot up and his eyes seemed to flash at my reaction. I didn't know why, but he took a deep breath and continued with his explanation.

"He pulled a knife out. I don't know where the old man got it, but after he stabbed me the first time -"

"The first time?" I croaked.

"Just let me get through this."

I nodded and sat back in the chair.

"After he stabbed me the first time, I couldn't fight anymore. He beat the hell out of me. I don't remember what he said to me, maybe nothing, but all I could think as I lay there on the forest floor was that I failed you."

"Oh Emmett -" I pressed a hand to my heart.

"I'm not done," he snapped at me again. It was very out of character for him to be this short-tempered with me. What was I doing wrong?

"So I laid there bleeding all over the ground thinking he left me to do God knows what to you, when an angel showed up."

"An angel?"

"Rosalie," he continued. "She picked me up and carried me back to Carlisle."

"_She _carried _you?_"

"She carried me."

"This is getting more and more unbelievable, Emmett."

"I haven't even gotten to the good part yet."

I didn't know what could possibly be worse than my brother bleeding and dying in the woods, but I continued to listen.

"I was delirious. I don't remember much. I remember Rosalie pleading to Carlisle. She couldn't do it, she kept saying over and over, I couldn't die, could he do it. I didn't know what _it_ was, but then there was excruciating pain. My whole body felt like it was on fire and it felt like I'd burn forever. Then, finally, it was gone. I woke up and this is what I was."

"And what exactly is that?"

"A vampire."

I stared at him. What he said did not register in any way in my mind. "A what?"

"Vampire."

I stared at him for a long moment. It seemed like he was bracing himself. I looked at him long and hard. I took in his appearance, his actions, the difference in him.

And I snapped.

"You've got a lot of fucking nerve, you know that?" I shouted, propelling myself out of my chair. His eyebrows shot up his forehead. He was surprised by my f-bomb. I hardly ever swore, unlike him, who had the mouth of a drunken sailor.

"You have _no_ idea how much I was worried about you! How that pervert psychopath tormented me from outside my door! I had no idea where you were, what happened, if you were coming back. And when I _finally_ get you to explain, _this_ is the crap you're going with? Are you kidding me?"

"Bella, every bit of it is true. I'm a vampire now."

"Like Dracula?"

"More like The Lost Boys, but we can go outside in the daylight."

"Screw you, Emmett!"

One second, he was sitting on the bed, the next – and I mean the very next second, I didn't even see him _move_ – he was standing in front of me, clutching my upper arms. He was holding me so hard, I felt sure I would bruise.

"Look at me, Isabella, I have red fucking eyes! How else can you explain that?"

I turned my face away and shook my head frantically. His grasp tightened, but when I started to whimper against the pain, he let go of me. I hadn't realized he lifted me off the ground until I fell to the floor, stunned.

"This can't be happening," I gasped. My eyes were filling with tears and my body was starting to tremble. "It's just not real. This stuff just doesn't exist. I've fallen into some parallel universe."

"You believe in parallel universes but _not_ vampires? How does that work?"

"Vampires don't exist; Emmett, they're spooky Halloween stories or Anne Rice best sellers. They're folklore!"

But deny it as I might, there was no getting around those eyes. Maybe I could explain away the speed and the strength, but his eyes were _red_. How could I explain that away? No human being had red eyes.

"I didn't expect you to believe it right away," he said softly. "I can't prove it to you in the daylight. We're not allowed to expose ourselves to humans -"

"Then why bother telling me?"

"I wasn't about to leave you with Lou, Bella!" he shouted. His voice was so loud, the walls shook and the windows rattled. He's yelled at me before, siblings as close in age as we were fought a lot, but the level of his shouting has never made anything vibrate, not even when he was watching football.

I took a deep breath and lowered myself back down into the chair. I took a few more breaths and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, he was kneeling before me.

"I know it sounds crazy, but I've never lied to you, Bells. It's hard to explain so that you can understand it, but I'm mostly the same person I was when I left the house that night. I'm still your brother; and I'll still take care of you. I will always be near, but I can't be around humans right now. Apparently, newborn vampires can't resist the call of human blood, but I've been able to resist you just fine. Maybe you're an anomaly; you always were a little freakish."

He grinned a bit and for the first time in this conversation, I saw my brother in him. My brother rarely took anything too seriously – that is, until we moved to New Hampshire. But now, as he looked at me with those scary red eyes, I saw him in there again. For the first time in two years, I saw my mischievous, light-hearted, devoted, frustrating as all hell, the spot where the sun rose and the moon set, brother.

"What do you think of all that?" he asked cautiously, after I was quiet for longer than was normal for me.

"I think you'll probably never fart on my head again and that makes me happy."

"Bella, that's disgusting."

"This from the guilty party!"

He wrapped his arm gently around my neck and rubbed his knuckle against my head for a noogie. I yelped and slapped at him, but all that did was hurt my hand. He released me as I scowled and pushed my hair from my face.

"Honestly," I sighed. "I think it's going to take a little while to sink it. It's pretty…out there."

"You're telling me. I can lift a car over my head."

I dropped my head onto his shoulder. It wasn't very easy to get comfortable when granite was your pillow. He chuckled when my stomach growled.

"Alright. Let's go see what Esme bought for you," he said, heaving himself off the bed. "Alice is also anxious to meet you. And you haven't met Jasper and Edward yet."

"Am I the only non…vampire?" It was pretty hard to get my mind around that word.

"Yes."

"Exactly how is it I'm supposed to be reassured about my safety?"

"They don't hunt humans."

I nodded and walked past him out into the hallway, where I stopped abruptly and spun back around on him.

"They don't hunt humans?" I repeated.

"That's right," he nodded.

"Emmett, what _do_ they hunt?"


	4. Chapter 4

**4.**

**~Edward~**

The sun was up when Jasper and I returned home. We stayed at Emmett's uncle's house long enough to make sure the blaze was going real good and for the fire department to pull up. I was skeptical that they'd buy Jasper's setup. He dragged the repugnant man back into the house and draped him in an EZ chair in the living room, surrounded by empty bottles of booze, then set up the kitchen to look like old Lou passed out drunk while making dinner. I wasn't so sure the humans would fall for it, but Jasper said it was a sure thing.

I honestly didn't care either way. The body would be charred to a crisp. It's not like the medical examiner was going to say, "My God! This man was killed by a vampire first!"

Alice and Rosalie had just pulled into the driveway. Alice popped the trunk of the Mercedes long enough for us to see the dozen shopping bags in there, then changed her mind and slammed it shut again.

"Can I carry your bags, my dear?" Jasper drawled in his classic Southern Gentleman way. Alice is always charmed by it, despite the fact that she doesn't need a man to carry _anything_ for her.

"Not yet," she shook her head. "We're going to meet Bella now."

I sighed and looked toward the house. "She's not awake yet."

"Of course she is."

"Alice -" I frowned as I heard Emmett and a new voice having a conversation. They were moving through the house. The new voice was speaking in a hoarse whisper, but we heard her just fine outside.

"Emmett," she hissed. "What do they _hunt_?"

"Animals," Emmett answered bluntly. So he'd told her what we were. Why wasn't she running away screaming?

The voice gasped sharply. "Like puppies and kittens and bunnies?" Of all things for her to be worried about…

"No," Emmett scoffed. "Like deer and elk and bears."

"Bears!"

"Yeah, its nuts."

"You hunted a _bear_?"

"I took it down like a junior varsity quarterback."

"I don't believe it," she insisted.

"Would you rather we hunt humans then? Apparently, you have a delectable aroma."

"I'm not scared of you, Emmett, and I don't believe it because I don't believe _any_ of this."

"Let me know when you come up with a theory for the red eyes."

"I can't hear her," I murmured.

"What?" Jasper asked. "What do you mean?"

"Her thoughts; I can't hear them. And I can't hear Emmett's very clearly either."

"You can't read her thoughts?" Alice asked.

"No. Can you see her?"

"I couldn't at first, but now I can," she replied and then intentionally blocked her thoughts from me. Crafty little vampire.

"I don't understand." Jasper shook his head. "I thought you heard everyone."

"I thought I did too, but I can't hear her. I get nothing. It's almost like there's a hole next to Emmett." This made me very uneasy. There was nobody that I couldn't read. I didn't even think it was possible.

"Emmett, bring Bella out back so we can meet her," Alice directed. Her voice wasn't any louder than a normal speaking voice, but Emmett heard her just fine.

We got to the patio behind the house at the same time Carlisle and Esme came out the back door. Alice thought me meeting Bella officially would go better outside in the open air. I had to agree. Emmett and Bella were the last ones to come out. Bella trailed behind Emmett; she reached for his hand. Once she had it in hers, she looked down, no doubt noticing the cold stone feel of it in her soft warm one.

Shouldn't that sensation register as some kind of thought? Her face certainly _looked_ like she was thinking something. Wouldn't the natural reaction to that be, 'Oh my God, why is his hand so cold and hard?' Why wasn't she thinking that? How could she not be thinking of anything?

"Bells, that's Jasper, Alice and Edward." Emmett pointed to each one of us individually and eyed me skeptically. "_You just keep your shit together, dude." _Well, that came in loud and clear. I smirked back at him. Her scent, while wildly appealing still, was much more bearable outside in the open air. It almost made me think I could get used to it.

"It's nice to meet you," she nodded at us. Her gaze lingered on me. I know I probably looked a little crazy to her, staring at her the way I was. I aimed every shred of my talent right at her brain and pushed against this curious barrier around her mind. And make no mistake, it actually _felt_ like some kind of barrier.

"It's nice to meet you too, Bella." Alice smiled in return and Bella broke her attention from me and looked over to Alice. What did she think of the little pixie standing next to me with a voice like a bell and a face like an angel? What did she think of her brother's red eyes? After all, they were, apparently, an issue.

"Why don't we have a seat?" Carlisle said gesturing to the patio chairs.

None of us needed to sit, but it would look more normal to Bella. Emmett gave her a little nudge towards a chaise lounge that caused her to stumble and fall against it.

"Of course," Emmett muttered.

"That wasn't actually my fault!" She glared at him. She had spunk, didn't she?

"Oh no, of course not; not Bella the un-graceful; the girl who's so klutzy she's almost disabled."

"Emmett!" She hissed and a very attractive and mouth-watering blush spread over her face. I sucked in my breath. I think it would be advantageous right about now for me to stop breathing all together. I noted that Emmett likewise was employing the same non-breathing technique. It was nice to see that he was struggling against the burn, too.

And that was another thing: what was she going to think when she discovered none of us, her brother included, needed to _breathe_?

And _why_ in God's name did I care what she thought about anything? Obviously, I didn't. I only cared because I didn't _know_ already. And it was my duty in this family to know every human's thoughts. That's how we knew when to pick up and leave wherever we were currently settled. I wasn't proving to be very effective around this girl.

Clearly I was being tested for some reason. Carlisle's higher power must be testing me. This was my penance for my decade of rebellion. Murderers and rapists or not, I still took human lives for a time. But according to Alice, I wouldn't take this one. I didn't see how that was possible. The fire burned down my throat and my mind clouded over as I watched that blush on her face begin to fade. 

"_You're doing great, Edward."_ Alice pushed the thought to me. I grabbed on to the familiar sound of her voice and pushed the haze away. I could do this; Alice said I could. And if a _newborn_ wasn't slipping up, surely I wouldn't either.

I took a chair closer to the curious human. Idle conversation began to swirl around us. Esme was very adept at making people feel welcome and Jasper was working overtime to keep everyone calm. He wouldn't be able to do that forever though. Sooner or later, he was going to have to leave us to our own devices.

Bella's eyes kept drifting over to me during the course of the conversation; no doubt wondering why I was staring so intently at her. I know I probably seemed like some kind of creepy stalker or something, but I was becoming utterly fascinated by her; drawn from the beginning by the curious and frustrating silence of her mind.

Her skin was pale, nearly as white as we were. When her eyes weren't on me, they were darting around the circle studying everyone else. And make no mistake, they _were_ studying us, taking in the strange details. Did she notice we had the same color eyes? Did she notice the dark circles under our eyes? The same chiseled features? Did she see how her brother's features had changed?

Alice chatted continuously about the clothes she just bought for Bella and Emmett, then Esme picked up the conversation by talking about travel plans to Washington, a packing schedule, who would ride with who? I noticed that Bella and Emmett were going to ride with Carlisle and Esme, which was fine by me...mostly. The _last_ place I should be with Bella was the small enclosed space of a car, and that made me a little disappointed.

I was intrigued by this human girl. How was I going to get past the handicap I had now? I couldn't _not _know what she was thinking. It was my _job_ to know in order to protect my family from threats.

Not only was I fascinated by her silent thoughts, but I found myself riveted by her in general. She was classically beautiful. Her eyes were the color of melted chocolate. Her chestnut hair was long and fell down her back in silky waves. Was it as soft as it looked?

Did she always chew her lip like that or was it something she did when she was nervous? _Was_ she nervous?

"How do you feel?" I suddenly asked. My family looked at me, surprised that I had asked; that I had said anything really. What? I couldn't show concern for our guest? I wasn't a monster. Well, I was, but I certainly wasn't an impolite one!

"Um, okay," she said softly.

"He means your throat," Emmett told her. Actually, my question was a lot more loaded than that. I wanted to know how she felt physically, mentally, emotionally. I wanted to know what she was _thinking_.

"It kind of feels like I swallowed sand," she croaked out. I found myself growing needlessly angry at the uncle that hurt her.

"_Dude, what's _wrong_ with you?"_ Jasper popped into my head and I felt myself calm down.

That was a good question. What was wrong with me? Other than the basic revulsion for the person that hurt this girl, what did I care? Why should it bother me at all that he hurt a human, albeit it one as pretty and captivating as this one –

WHAT WAS _WRONG_ WITH ME?

The wave of calm fell over me again and I gave Jasper a grateful look. Alice was looking at me with a knowing smile, but she was still hiding her thoughts. I gave her a low frustrated hiss.

Bella was answering Esme's questions about her Uncle Charlie, what she liked to eat, what her normal sleeping hours were. Bella seemed a little surprised. At least, I _thought_ she looked surprised.

I found myself diligently paying attention to her answers and creating my own list of questions for her. How long did she sleep? What did she dream about? What kind of books did she like to read? Did she even like to read books? Maybe she preferred to watch television. Did she like listening to music? What did she like to listen to?

My eyes snapped up to Alice when I saw the vision forming in her head. She was finally letting me in. I saw myself giving Bella a tour of what looked like my bedroom. Given the view out of the window, it looked like what would be my bedroom in Forks. Then something very strange happened in the vision. I took Bella into my arms and we began to dance. When the vision cleared, I looked at Alice in confusion.

"_I told you you weren't going to kill her, Edward. In fact, it appears you'll teach her to dance." _

I played that vision over in my mind. Bella was smiling at me as my arms slid around her waist. Could that be possible? Could I ever be close to her like that? It appeared I _wanted_ to be that close to her as I too was smiling in the vision. How could she willingly move into the arms of a vampire? Was she insane? What did that mean for us? Were we friends? She was obviously going to be comfortable with me and I didn't see anyone else in the room with us.

I wasn't sure if I was thankful to Alice or not for showing me that snapshot of the future. There were too many questions it left behind. One thing that was certain right now, the way Bella kept looking warily over at me, she most certainly would not like to see my name on her dance card.

**~Bella~**

This was all very surreal. I still didn't know if I fully believed what Emmett had told me, but I could see for certain that the Cullen family was very different. They all shared the same intriguing eye color and had curious dark circles under their eyes. They were all impossibly beautiful. Even Emmett was more handsome now than he was before.

Alice seemed very friendly. She chatted incessantly about anything that seemed to pop into her head. The only other person who really talked was Esme. I knew right away that Esme was very sweet. She smiled at me a lot and it felt like she was genuinely happy to have me here with everyone.

Carlisle seemed to watch me critically, which I assumed was because he was a doctor and I was his patient at the moment.

The one named Jasper was very fierce looking, but his face seemed to soften as he looked at Alice. I got the impression that maybe they were a couple. Rosalie looked a little bored, but I noticed that she stayed very close to Emmett. This was especially interesting to me because Emmett looked especially happy to have Rosalie so close. He was quite clearly attracted to her. Of course, Emmett was typically just attracted to anything female, but Rosalie seemed like something more to him. I couldn't wait to get him alone and needle him about it.

And then there was Edward. He was the most beautiful of them all. I knew it was rude to stare, but he had the kind of face you just couldn't stop looking at. Plus, he never seemed to stop staring at _me_. I wasn't sure what to make of that. I didn't have much experience with boys. Emmett, be it intentionally or unintentionally, typically kept any interested boys at bay. He was a very big guy and pretty intimidating. It wasn't easy to get a date with him hanging around. I was too young to really date in Arizona and in New Hampshire, I wasn't really interested.

Edward seemed to hang on my every word, however few they were, and every now and then it almost looked like he was frustrated about something. I could only assume it was me and that having a human around was problematic for them, the flaw in that theory was nobody else seemed to be reacting that way.

"So, we'll spend the rest of the day packing what we need and leave for Washington in the morning," Carlisle said.

"What will you do?" I asked Emmett quietly.

"What do you mean?" he asked, turning to face me from his position where he was seated at the end of the chaise lounge I was on.

"When we get to Washington," I said. "If it's too dangerous to be around humans, what will you do? How will you explain to Charlie what happened? What will _you_ do out there?"

"Well, I don't think I'm going to be getting a job," he replied.

"Don't worry, Bella," Alice chimed. "We'll take care of him. And you'll see him a lot. You'll see all of us very often." She seemed awfully confident about that.

"I'll call Uncle Charlie on our way there and explain everything over the phone," Emmett suggested. "That way, he'll have spoken to me and I might not have to actually _see_ him. I can tell him I'm going to college out there. Or maybe I'll tell him I joined the Army and that will explain why he doesn't see me."

"That would work well," Alice nodded. "It would be the perfect excuse for all but dumping Bella off on his doorstep and then taking off."

"Okay, well, that's what you'll _tell_ him, now I'm asking you what you're going to do with your time?"

"I don't really know, Bells." He sounded a little frustrated, but he kept his voice calm and easy. "I was thinking maybe I'd go down to the storage unit in Arizona and get you some stuff."

"Really?" I asked perking up. "What do you think you can bring back? Can you get my books? I guess Charlie will have furniture, right? I did really like my desk. Do you think you can get that?"

"I'll tell you what," he said. "After you get settled in at Charlie's just tell me what you want me to get you. That'll keep me occupied for a little while."

"What type of books do you like?" Edward asked. I nearly jolted from hearing his voice again. It was so velvety smooth. And it was such a normal question to ask.

"Bella's such a nerd," Emmett laughed and I scowled at him. "She likes all those books you have to read for English class."

"They're classics, Emmett," I said and poked him in the ribs. It used to be that he hated when I did that. I'm not even sure if he felt it this time. "Not everyone finds their sole entertainment in the morning box scores."

"Some people like to talk about _current_ issues and not whatever yawn-inducing problem was plaguing Liza and Mr. Doolittle."

"Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy!" I hissed and he chuckled. I swear to God, sometimes I thought he really did know their names and just did this to mess with me.

"You're in luck, Bella," Esme smiled at me. "Carlisle has an extensive library. You're welcome to borrow anything you want from it any time you want."

"Thank you," I said softly.

"She'll probably still want hers anyway," Emmett muttered. "They look like they've been run over by car. She's read them so many times the covers are taped on and the pages are fraying on the side."

"They're better company than you," I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest and doing my damn best not to pout.

"Is your taste in music the same as your taste in literature?" Edward asked.

"At least there she's got slightly better taste."

"I can answer for myself, Emmett."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he smirked. "Would you two like to be alone?"

That's it. With a sound only a sister could make at her annoying brother, I launched myself at him. He wasn't surprised and he immediately pinned me down. He was a lot heavier than he used to be.

"Stop it or you're going to get hurt," he ordered. "You couldn't take me on before and you definitely can't now. I'm a lot stronger than I used to be and I don't want to hurt you by accident."

"Then stop being such a cretin!"

"It's my sworn job as your brother."

"Get off me!"

He pushed himself up and I sat up with a huff, then I shoved him. Again, I don't think he felt it. I looked over at Edward expecting to see…I don't know what, but it wasn't the clear amusement I saw on his face.

"I hope you're nicer to your sisters than my brother is to me."

"I'm not," he smirked.

"Figures."

"Are you hungry, Bella?" Esme jumped in, clearly trying to bring back some sort of peace and dignity to the conversation. "I could make you some soup. That would be nice, and light and good for your throat."

"Oh, um, sure," I replied. I still wasn't particularly hungry, but I could get some soup down in the interest of good manners. After all, _I_ had actual good manners, unlike my brother's atrocious ones.

"Great!" Esme smiled brightly. She clapped her hands together, stood up, and then hurried inside. She seemed awfully enthusiastic.

"Well, this should be interesting," Jasper said quietly. It was so soft, I wasn't sure I heard it, but all the others chuckled.

I was pretty sure I was the only one that didn't get the joke.


	5. Chapter 5

**5.**

**~Edward~**

"Edward," Esme smiled at me as I entered the kitchen. "Have you come to keep me company?"

"I think it's best if Bella and I are acquainted in small increments." I sat down on a stool at the breakfast bar and watched Esme poke around the kitchen. It occurred to me that this must be a very normal occurrence in a human household; a boy talking to his mother as she prepares a meal, but even though Esme and I have never experienced this, it still felt normal. How strange.

"They have an odd relationship, don't you think?" I asked. "Emmett and Bella."

"What do you mean?" she replied, frowning at the can in her hand.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "It's just that he seems awfully rough with her. She looks pretty delicate."

Esme looked up and smiled at me. "You're such a gentleman, Edward. It's so nice to see. I think Emmett is just getting used to handling her with his new strength. He was very gentle with her yesterday."

"Is it normal for him to – I don't know – tease her the way he does so much?" I leaned forward on the counter on my elbows. Esme went back to frowning at the can in her hand.

"Sort of like you do with Alice?" she countered. Huh, I hadn't really thought of it that way. Why did I care about Emmett's relationship with his sister anyway?

"Don't worry too much about it, Edward. Bella is Emmett's sister. He loves her so much he couldn't bear to leave her in the situation she was in when he knew he would be even more dangerous to her. Never forget that. He suffers just as much as you do to be near her and it's been admirable. We only just met them. They have a different sibling dynamic than you kids do." I'll say.

"How is this supposed to open?" She held the can up to me. "I tried to pull the top off, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I wonder if a knife will work."

"Do we even have a knife?"

Esme looked around the kitchen. "Surely we must. There was stuff in here from the previous owners when we moved in. Otherwise, I suppose Rosalie would have something in the garage."

She began opening drawers until she came across a knife. She laid the can on its side and tried to saw the end off. "That doesn't seem to be how it works."

"Does it have one of those tabs on the top? I've seen kids in school open cans with a tab on top."

"No."

"Alright, let's try this." Jasper's laptop was sitting on the breakfast bar. I pulled it over and powered it up. I brought up Google and searched for how to open a can. "Here, do we have one of these?" I turned the computer to Esme and pointed at the strange device on the screen. She frowned and searched through the drawers again.

"Ah-ha!" She held up the kitchen tool triumphantly. "Does it say how to use it?" A few more taps of the keys and a YouTube video popped up.

"Okay," she said after watching her brief training video. "That looks easy enough. Just so you know, _this_ is called a 'can opener'."

"Ingenious!" I chuckled.

"I think these are after my time. I don't recall ever encountering one." 

"I definitely have not." I punched in another web search. "According to Wikipedia, it doesn't look like they really became a common household tool until after World War 2."

Esme worked the lid off the can and then smiled victoriously. "I can heat it up in that microwave." She walked over to the cabinet mounted appliance, put the can inside, closed the door, and after a few tries, successfully programmed the microwave.

"Good." She clapped her hands once. "It's not so hard."

Or so we thought.

After a few seconds, popping sounds could be heard. When we looked inside the microwave, there were sparks coming off the can and small flames burning the label. Esme yelped, flung open the door and tossed the can quickly into the sink. Soup was everywhere.

"I don't understand. How can I not be good at this?" She was frustrated and blew her hair out of her face.

Emmett entered the kitchen then. "Alice sent me in," he said, looking from me to Esme.

I thought it was strange that he left Bella's side, then saw that it was because Carlisle was outside with Bella still and Emmett seemed to trust both he and Esme with her safety. For some reason, I was happier than I should have been over that information.

"She must have seen this disaster," Esme muttered.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Well, we seem to be running into a technological issue," I explained diplomatically. I didn't want Esme to feel any worse than she already was. "Esme wants to make Bella soup, but there are roadblocks."

Emmett arched an eyebrow and walked over to where Esme stood scowling at the kitchen sink. He looked down and smirked. _"Oh, that's good stuff!"_ I rolled my eyes, but I supposed I couldn't blame him for finding it funny.

"You can't put that in the microwave," he stated the obvious.

"Yes, we've figured that out," Esme snapped in a very un-Esme-like way.

"Do you have another one?" Emmett asked.

"Yes, I bought a few." Esme moved to the cabinet and pulled out another can.

"I have to say," Emmett began as he deftly removed the lid with the can opener with Esme watching every move he made intently. "That food preparation mostly fell to Bella, but I could handle stuff like this. She likes it that way. She likes to feel useful and needed. She's kind of spastic like that because just having a sister and having company is useful and I need her regardless of whether or not she can cook, but that's Bella for you."

He opened cabinets until he found a pot and slapped it down on the stovetop, dumped the contents of the can into the pot, added some water and turned the stove on. "Now you heat it until it boils."

"That seems pretty simple," Esme said.

"I take it you were changed before the invention of the microwave." Emmett leaned against the counter, settling in, no doubt in case any other scientific experiments in the kitchen went wrong.

"Yes, most definitely; the late 1920's."

"Wow," Emmett sounded impressed. Wait until he found out how old Carlisle was. He looked to me. "What about you?"

"1917, Spanish influenza."

"Sounds miserable."

"Can I stir this?" Esme poked at the soup with a wooden spoon.

"Sure," Emmett shrugged. "You're probably supposed to."

Esme smiled and began to stir the soup. _"Look Edward! I'm getting the hang of it!"_ I shook my head with a grin and turned back to Emmett.

"You were pretty good out there," he said to me.

"It's easier in the open air like that."

"But will that make it easier in the house now?"

"Probably."

"She likes you."

"I'm sorry?" I sputtered. Who liked me? Bella? How could he know that?

"My sister," he confirmed slowly. "She likes you."

"We just met. How do you know that?"

"I know her tells; how do you _not_ know that?"

"I can't read her thoughts."

"No shit?"

"Emmett, please don't swear," Esme gently chided, then she turned to me. "What do you mean, Edward? You can't hear her?"

"No, I can't read her mind. Emmett's a little fuzzy, but I get nothing at all from Bella. It's very frustrating."

"But totally typical," Emmett shrugged. "Bella's always been odd."

"_Well, won't that make things interesting for them?"_ Esme went back to stirring her pot of soup.

I wanted to ask her who she meant, but I was stuck in between my proverbial rock and a hard place. I tried to give my family as much privacy as I could. Most of their thoughts weren't intended for me to hear and I tried to respect that, but at times like this, it made me crazy.

"Anyway," Emmett said, crossing his arms over his chest. "She likes you. And I hope you don't think all the stuff I said before made her sound dorky."

"Umm, no."

"She does like all that nerdy stuff. She's very smart. But she likes, like, normal stuff too. Although, she's not overly 'girlie,' if you know what I mean." I didn't.

"I don't think I'm really an acceptable suitor for your sister," I replied. Esme's mind went suspiciously blank.

"I didn't say you could date her; I just want you to know that so you don't hurt her feelings or anything. My sister doesn't date."

"Why?" Esme asked.

"Well, she's painfully shy," Emmett explained. "But like any overprotective brother, I tended to scare potential boyfriends off, not always intentionally either. I'd let her date if one of them proved worthy enough, but my sister is a notch in no guy's bedpost."

My opinion of Emmett just went up.

"I assure you, you have nothing to worry about from me. At the moment, I'm just trying to be safely in the same room as her. I have no intention of courting her."

"_That's what he thinks."_ My attention snapped up to Esme.

"I think you'll get that under control." Emmett replied. I had to force myself to pay attention to him; Esme had very interesting thoughts. "Here's the thing: You all say I'm not going to be safe around humans for a while and I believe you. I'm not stupid; I can feel how difficult it is just to be safe around Bella. But I can see you're overcoming it, Edward. I know Alice is safe for her too. My point is, is when we get to Washington, I won't be enrolling in school with any of you, most importantly, with my sister. And she _needs_ someone to look out for her. That's not just me being overprotective, its fact. She's a klutz and has a penchant for finding trouble. Stuff just happens to her."

"She'll be fine, Emmett," Esme reassured him, patting his arm.

"No, she won't," Emmett shook his head. "This is what I'm talking about. Stuff that doesn't happen to normal people happens to Bella. Trouble just _aims_ for her. She broke her ankle once walking from the house to the car, over a flat surface. And she doesn't have any experience with guys; that's not just because of me, it's because of her too. Bella sees the good in people. She rarely sees the bad until it's too late and she's in serious trouble. But this time, I won't be there."

Esme calmly tapped the spoon against the rim of the pot and set it down on the stove. She turned to Emmett and folded her hands in front of her. Emmett was about to get it.

"You are mine now, Emmett. Do you understand? It means that you are part of this family. You come with Bella and your parents are gone. That makes Bella mine now too, no matter where she lives. Whatever needs to be done to protect her and ensure her safety will be done. That's the way our family works. We protect each other and we do what is right for the good of the whole. So when I say she'll be fine, it's because I won't have it any other way. My children come first no matter the cost."

Emmett smiled slowly at Esme. "You've got your work cut out for you with both of us."

"I've never backed down from a challenge. You've met Jasper, haven't you?"

I smiled. Jasper must have been out of hearing distance if he didn't object to that. She was right though. When Jasper and Alice joined our family, it took a firm, but patient hand to bring Jasper fully around. He came from a very different lifestyle than we did and the adjustment wasn't, and still is not, easy for him.

"Well, if you're game, we'll stick."

"Yes, I'm game, as you say." Esme replied, then turned back to her soup and clapped her hands in glee. "It's boiling!"

"Take it off the burner, don't forget to shut the stove off and pour the soup into a bowl," Emmett instructed.

Esme patted his cheek and did as he instructed. _"He'll do well with us and he'll do well with Rosalie. I'm so happy she's found someone. It just doesn't get better than this. Our family feels complete now. Rosalie's found Emmett; and Edward's found Bella." _

Whoa, what?

**~Bella~**

The next morning, I stood next to Carlisle's sleek black Mercedes. The cars in the driveway - that were already packed for the trip - looked like something out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. There was Carlisle's Mercedes, a gray Volvo and a cherry red BMW convertible. Even more wild than that was the off hand comment last night that _Rosalie_ had tuned all the cars up for the trip cross-country.

_Rosalie_. I didn't mean to sound so sexist, but she was the very last person I'd peg as a mechanic, but according to Alice, cars were a passion of Rosalie's and she did all the maintenance and upgrades on them. It just went to show you that you really couldn't judge a book by its cover.

Emmett and Edward had gone hunting and were just returning. Both of them headed right for the cars.

"Where'd you get that?" Emmett asked me, tapping the copy of Romeo and Juliet I held in my hand.

"Carlisle loaned it to me." I raised my chin a bit. I thought it was very nice of Carlisle to let me pick out things to read during the long car trip. My jaw dropped when I saw his library here. Esme assured me there was a duplicate in Forks. A _duplicate_. Why didn't they pack the books here up and ship them?

"Well, let me know if Romeo survives this time." I smacked him with the book as he walked away. I furrowed my brow when I saw him embrace Rosalie to say goodbye before he would be coming with Carlisle, Esme, and I. How strange to see my brother _that_ interested in a girl. _He_ went to _her_. The kiss was so heated I actually turned my entire body away to avoid seeing any more of it.

"It's a long way to travel, trapped in a car with an annoying brother," Edward said.

I blinked up at him, always surprised when he chose to speak to me. I understood from the others that it was harder for him to be around me than it was for them. "I'm used to it," I blurted.

"I'm sorry we can't switch off cars."

He was?

"Do I really smell that bad?"

"You smell that _good_,"he grinned sheepishly and I nearly lost my breath.

I was more affected by him than I was by the others. I had a hard time not looking at his perfect face. And when I spoke, I constantly felt tongue tied. He must have thought I was some kind of simpleton. He was impeccably polite and his golden eyes seemed to see right through me.

"Well, everyone's got some redeeming qualities, right?" I quipped.

I was surprised when his features hardened and his eyes went cold. "No," he said softly, but firmly. "Not everyone."

Before I could ask him what he meant by that, Carlisle came out of the house, followed by Esme who looked like she had locked everything up. 

"Alright, we're all assembled. Let's get on the road," Carlisle announced. "We may need to make a few more stops than the rest of you. Feel free to travel straight on."

"We'll stay together," Jasper replied. "Rosalie and Alice, then you, then Edward and I." Everyone nodded at his direction. I found that interesting how they just deferred to Jasper like that, even Carlisle did and he was quite obviously the head of the family.

Emmett walked back over to me, gave my back a quick rub, and opened the car door. Once I was in the back seat, he slammed the door and then joined me from the other side.

Esme looked back at us from the front seat and smiled. "Are you sad to see New Hampshire go?"

"No," Emmett and I answered together.

"Things will be good in Washington, Bella," she said. "Our house is very close to Forks and you'll be welcome anytime. Once we all get settled, I'd love to meet your uncle and get to know him better. Emmett said he was a police officer?"

"Yes. He's chief of police there."

"Well, that should make you feel safer." Esme replied. She turned back toward the front of the car as the caravan filed out of the driveway.

"Here we go again," I said with a sigh and turned to Emmett. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Not entirely, but it's the best option for you," he said. "Uncle Charlie's the best and I'll be close by. You're going to have to start over in a new school, but at least Alice and Edward will be there, too."

"It rains a lot up there, I like the sun."

"Yeah, I know, but wait until you see what I look like in the sun."

"What's that mean?"

"You just have to see it for yourself to believe it."

I nodded and looked down at my book. I couldn't imagine him looking any more different than he already did, but I supposed I'd just have to wait and see.

"You can always ask us anything, Bella," Carlisle said, meeting my gaze in the rearview mirror. "If you have any questions about us or our lifestyle, you have only to ask."

"I don't know that it's fully sunk in yet," I said softly. Carlisle nodded and turned his attention back to the road.

It was hard to imagine the things that my brother had told me so far. They were all very obviously different from me – from humans – but they seemed to have retained so much humanity that it made it difficult to see them for what they were – what they said they were. They didn't sleep, they didn't eat, they could go out in the daylight, they weren't bothered by garlic. So far, they didn't really fit the vampire mold, so to speak. I had read Anne Rice's books, so I could see the hunting animals thing.

Emmett did move faster, he was a lot stronger now, and he could jump in and out of third-story windows. Plus there was the whole red eyes thing that I couldn't explain. And yet, though he looked out at me with, like, Freddy Krueger eyes, so much of his personality was still there. He smiled easily again and he didn't seem so weighted down with worry about how we would survive the nightmare we were in.

I glanced behind us to see the Volvo, with Edward and Jasper, following closely. Was it me, or were we speeding? I was surprised by how fast we were going. Wouldn't getting pulled over be a very bad thing? From the looks of the house we left behind, the style of clothes, the value of these cars, it was obvious the Cullens had money, so I doubt that they'd bat an eye over the penalty imposed with a speeding ticket, but wasn't the point to encounter as few humans as possible? Especially police officers since Emmett and I were likely to be officially missing by now. What would happen when we – or more accurately I – got to Charlie? How were we going to explain Lou?

Once again, I was left with the feeling that Emmett really didn't think this plan through.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Happy New Year! Thanks for the reviews and favorites add. Also, I noticed a few new readers, welcome!**

**6.**

**~Emmett~**

I sat in the back seat of the Mercedes with the window wide open. Bella was asleep on my shoulder so the fresh air was a definite plus to counteracting, in part, the burn I felt. We were parked in a deserted, unfinished strip mall parking lot all of three hours into our cross-country trip. Carlisle, Esme and Rosalie had gone to run an errand. What that could possibly be in the middle of New York, I didn't know.

Edward appeared at the side of the car and looked down at me with interest.

"Rough going?" He asked.

"The fresh air makes it easier," I conceded.

"This is an odd time of day for a human to nap, isn't it?"

"I don't recall her ever being a napper," I shrugged the shoulder that Bella's head wasn't on. "A lot's happened in the last few days. Carlisle said she has to deal with it all in her own way. I'm just going with the flow."

"According to Rosalie, you're creating the flow," he smirked. "In fact, you seem to be creating raging rapids."

"Yeah, what's her deal?" I asked him. "Is she always that difficult?"

"Oh, sometimes more," he smiled widely. "Good luck with that, my friend."

"It's very bizarre. She's not really my type, yet, I can't seem to muster up the desire to shake her off. She's hot, controlling if I let her be, a little surly, and not my type at all."

"Vampires don't pick their mates," he attempted to explain. "I don't know much about it, having never found my mate. It's almost like a dormant gene inside and when you find that person, they're the center of your universe."

"Does everyone else fall away in your eyes?"

"You tell me," he countered. "It's never happened to me."

"It must not," I frowned, looking down at my sister. "It's like I have this insatiable need for Rosalie, but it doesn't cloud over my duties to Bella."

"Duties?"

"Well, yeah." I looked back up at Edward. He looked confused. "I'm her older brother. That comes with a lot of responsibility; a lot more when you got a sister as tragically klutzy as mine is. But beyond being her brother, I was also the only male in our family. Our dad split early on; our mother was pretty flighty. She was real sweet like Bella, but she was forgetful."

"Your father left you?"

"Yeah. I didn't have a lot of memories of him when I was human; I don't have any of him now. Our mom dated, but she never went out with anyone seriously. Uncle Charlie was really the only positive father-like figure we had. One day, I just sort of realized that I was the man of the house. Bella and my mom looked to me a lot when tough decisions had to get made, which is funny because Bella is much more logical than I am, but that's the way it evolved. When I realized that I would be the only constant male presence in my sister's life, I made sure to take her a lot more seriously, you know?

"I started paying closer attention to who she was hanging out with, and who was sniffing around after her at school. I made sure she got the things that she needed to take care of the household stuff she had taken on. But above all, I made it a point to make sure there would never be any question in her mind that she could depend on me, always, for anything. That's why I _had_ to go back for her, Edward. That's why I _have_ to be safe for her. I made a promise."

"I never had anyone like that," Edward said after a long pause. "I was an only child and my parents had a good, solid marriage. My sisters now, Rosalie and Alice, they definitely don't need me to look out for them. They'd break me in half if I tried. You're very lucky, Emmett."

"Yeah? Everyone else thinks I'm crazy."

"No, they don't. You surprised them – all of us. You're a curious - and admittedly, sort of inspiring – creature."

"Well, no one's ever called me _that_ before," I chuckled. "Make sure you repeat that when my sister's awake."

He leaned against the car while we waited. I didn't know where Alice and Jasper had gone. They took the other car someplace, but it wasn't long before the Volvo returned, followed by a very large RV.

"Oh God, now what did they do?" Edward muttered, pushing himself off the door. The two vehicles stopped next to us. Rosalie got out of the Volvo and Esme and Carlisle emerged from the RV.

"What the hell is that?" I asked, stunned.

"The Winnebago Adventurer," Esme gushed. "Isn't it great? This will be the safest and most efficient way to get the rest of the way to Washington. You're not safe to be around other humans yet, and with this we won't need to make as many stops for Bella either. She can eat, sleep, or do whatever she needs to do right in here. We'll only need to stop for gas. It will also be perfect when you want to go to Phoenix to your storage unit. It will give you and Rosalie a place to lay low and hold anything you bring back with you."

Bella pushed herself up off my shoulder and looked out the window. "What's going on?"

"We're moving to new digs," I said, gesturing to the Winnebago.

"Wow," she breathed.

"Aptly put."

I opened the car door and climbed out, Bella behind me. Rosalie came over to my side. "You just bought this thing?" I asked.

"It's very practical," Esme said. "Especially now. I imagine by now, the police will be looking for you and Bella. This will ensure you aren't seen before we're ready. We need to get Bella to your uncle. As a police officer, he'll be able to contact the police in New Hampshire and explain the situation as you've explained it to him. Either one of you being seen now will only cause unneeded trouble."

"I'm not arguing with your logic," I replied. "It's just these things don't really come cheap."

"That's not something you need to worry about," Esme smiled. "Money is not a concern for us, only ensuring the safety of our family. We'll either keep it for future use or sell it again. What's most important is keeping Bella safe, and with us, right now."

The BMW tore into the lot then, screeched over to us, and stopped on a dime right next to the Mercedes. Alice popped out of the drivers' seat and retrieved bags from the trunk. Jasper took her side. Some of the bags looked like they were from the supermarket and others were Barnes and Noble bags.

"Cook books," Rosalie said, her voice at vampire speed. "Esme's going to read them on the trip across the country and learn to cook for Bella. She has refused to accept there's some function of motherhood she wasn't instantly perfect at and has taken steps to immediately rectify the situation."

"Would you like to see inside, Bella?" Carlisle offered, sweeping his hand out towards the door.

"Uh, sure," she said quietly.

I followed her inside and the both of us stopped dead. Shit, this thing was _nice_. It's like the ones NASCAR drivers stay in when they go to races; big, plush, white leather seats, a lounge area, a galley kitchen, private bedroom, the works.

Rosalie, Carlisle, Esme and Edward followed us in.

"It came equipped with a 40" LCD television, a home theater system, satellite system, including a television in the bedroom, Corian countertops, stainless steel appliances in the galley kitchen over there, filtration system, and a queen size bed." Rosalie rattled off the specs. "The bathroom's got skylights and a full shower with a flexible showerhead. The front's got WiFi, cruise control, a work station in the passenger seat dash, GPS, and a backup monitor. The radio has a 6 CD changer, ports for MP3 Players, and the entertainment center has a DVD player and surround sound. As you can see, it's got all the bedding and linens already; the kitchen has all the plates, utensils, and pots and pans. Esme talked them out of their showroom model."

"Bitchin'," I said, nodding my head in appreciation.

Bella walked slowly over to the couch along the wall and sat down. Esme followed her, leaned down to the side, pushed a button, and Bella's seat reclined. Bella looked at me wide-eyed. I knew just how she felt. I asked myself, again, who were these people? Why were they willing to go to such lengths for us? When was I going to get used to it?

Can I drive?" I asked.

"Absolutely not." Esme lost her smile. "Jasper is going to take over driving the Mercedes; Rosalie will take the BMW, and Alice will drive Edward's Volvo. Edward, I would like you to ride with us for now. Carlisle will drive this and I'll ride in front with him."

She had it all figured out; nobody argued, though Edward looked a little surprised. I tried not to pout. I really wanted to see what this sucker had under the hood. I dropped down next to Bella, and reached to the side of the couch and reclined my seat too. I locked my hands behind my head and grinned at my sister. "Not a bad way to travel."

"It certainly seems comfortable."

"If you're still tired, there's that bedroom back there," I said hooking my thumb towards the rear of the RV. "Why don't you go check it out?"

"I'm fine," she said. Carlisle and Esme moved to the front seats. Edward wandered over to the kitchenette table as Rosalie leaned down and trapped me in a very hot, very promising kiss. When she pulled away, she trailed a finger along my jaw. Seriously? I couldn't ride with her? Where's the fairness in this?

She went back outside and I looked over at Bella as we got under way. I thought she'd be blushing from witnessing that little PDA, but she was looking at me curiously.

"You certainly seem to have hit it off with her," she said.

"I know; it's weird. She's not my type."

"She's female, Emmett," Bella countered dryly. "That's exactly your type."

"Yeah, but she's high maintenance," I countered. "When's the last time you saw me with some high maintenance babe?"

"You haven't been with _anyone_ since Kerry," Bella said quietly and dropped her gaze away.

I really wish she hadn't brought Kerry up. Leaving her behind in Arizona hurt more than it should have. Not that Kerry and I were going to get married or anything, but I liked her. I think she was the first girl I loved. I'm not sure now because these feelings I had for Rosalie were pretty intense.

And depending on how you interpreted Bella's statement, she may or may not have been right. It was true that I hadn't had any _girlfriends_ since Kerry, but I have had sex since we moved. My sister gets mortified when she thinks of stuff like that, so I try to keep it off her radar, especially since I didn't really care about any of the girls I slept with in New Hampshire. I admit it; I was a bit of a dog. I was a disenchanted teen acting out like hundreds of thousands of others in America. Sue me.

"I don't want to talk about Kerry," I said and actually squirmed in my seat a bit. "Don't bring her up again."

"Okay," Bella nodded. I know she was a little hurt by that. I just wasn't really comfortable talking about the past like that, at least my past that involved Kerry. For reasons, I couldn't really explain, it just bugged me.

"I was just going to point out that you seemed kind of serious about Rosalie and you haven't known her that long; less than a week."

"It's hard to explain. I love her and it happened almost instantly, like love at first sight. It's like she's everything."

Bella got very quiet. When I looked over at her, she was intently studying her hands which were clasped tightly in her lap.

"Do you love her more than me?"

Uh oh.

Well, I wasn't expecting that.

"Love you? Bella, I don't even _like_ you," I smirked, reaching over and tousling her hair.

She shoved it back out of her face. I could see she tried to keep her composure, but her lip began to tremble. "I'm losing you, aren't I?" she whispered. Something inside me broke right in half.

I heard the crack in her voice and immediately put my arms around her. She tried to hold the tears back, but they leaked down her cheeks anyway. "Don't be an idiot. The two of you don't compare. They're very different kinds of love. You will _never_ lose me. I promise."

"How can you be so sure?" She whispered.

"Have you ever known me not to keep my promise?" I growled. I squeezed her tighter, but let go quick when I heard her breath hitch. I didn't want to accidentally break one of her ribs.

"No."

"Then let's assume I'll keep this one too, all right?"

"Okay," she said softly and pulled away.

She was getting to be a bit much for me to handle right then. It was an overload on my senses and on my emotions. I sent Edward a distress signal. _"Dude, make yourself useful."_ I waved him over, then leaned down and pressed a kiss to Bella's temple. "I gotta step away for a bit."

I rose off the chair, walked to the bedroom without looking back and closed the door behind me. A few hours of mindless television with open windows would hopefully put me back on an even keel. Staying around Bella was a lot harder than I anticipated it would be.

**~Edward~**

I sat down next to Bella and tried to keep Emmett's frustrated thoughts at bay. I couldn't blame him; it wasn't easy.

"Maybe I should go talk to him," she said.

"Why don't you let him be for a little while," I suggested. "I'll stay with you."

"I thought you said being around me wasn't easy?"

"It's getting easier," I smiled.

Truth be told, I was glad of Emmett's sudden exit. Bella confused me as much as she intrigued me and all I knew was that I had to be around her. I had to figure this puzzling human girl out. It was becoming an obsession.

"Okay, well, then why don't you tell me about yourself?" she began.

"What do you want to know?"

"Well, what do you _do_ all day?"

"When we get to Washington, Jasper, Alice, and I will enroll in school. It keeps up the façade of us being a normal family. I imagine we'll go to the same school as you."

"Really?" She looked intrigued. "What grade will you start in?"

"Naturally, I'll be a junior."

"Me too," she nodded. "At least I'll have a friend there. It was lonely in New Hampshire and I don't make friends very fast. So that'll be nice."

And it _felt_ nice. No, not nice. It felt _good_. She would be my friend; and Alice's and Jasper's, as well. We never really made human friends. This was going to be an interesting change of pace. Maybe high school wouldn't be so miserable this time around.

"How old are you really?" she asked, turning towards me and curling her legs underneath her. She looked like she was settling in for a long conversation and that made me feel ridiculously happy.

"17."

"And how long have you _been_ 17?" She folded her hands across the back of the seat, rested her chin on her arms, and looked up at me.

Something inside of me unlocked and exploded out like a geyser. Suddenly, I felt need, and it was focused entirely on her. I _needed_ her. I needed to be with her, I needed to be in her presence, see her smile, hear her voice, smell her scent, and listen to her heartbeat. I needed to protect her. I needed to love her. And what was the most surprising to me was that I needed _her _to love _me_.

But even if she didn't, if she couldn't, it didn't matter. I just needed her to _be_. Be safe, be healthy, be happy. Just be.

I now knew what Rosalie and Carlisle experienced; what Emmett was going through. I knew what it was like to be tethered to one person so absolutely. How strange that it took nothing more than that mere look of trust in her eyes just then to trigger such a change inside of me.

I felt like I got hit by a train, yet even that couldn't have impacted me like this. Even being hit by a locomotive could not bring me to my knees the way this one human girl could do with her chocolate eyes and chestnut hair, warm and familiar like a favorite pair of jeans just out of the dryer. Her skin as white as snow; her lips pink as candy. They would taste just like that too, I just knew it. I knew if I ever got up the courage to actually kiss her, it would be new, but feel like coming home at the same time. How could it be any different? How could it be any less?

Looking at me now the way she was, so willing to trust me, interested in what I'd say next, she took my breath away; or would have, if I had been breathing. I stared at her face as she waited for me to answer her. Could she ever see me the way I now saw her?

I struggled to find words to describe what I felt now, but nothing seemed strong enough. How could I explain it? How could I adequately describe how, in one bat of her eyelashes, my existence suddenly became solely about her? Quite literally in the blink of an eye, she became my life.

I loved her. And so I would do anything I had to in order to ensure that she was protected, loved, and happy. I would break any barrier, overcome any hurdle, eliminate any threat, and perhaps most dangerous of all, face her brother.

"Edward?"

I shook free of my epiphany and looked at her with new eyes. "Yes?"

"How long have you been 17?"

How long had she been waiting for an answer?

"Awhile," I replied.

She laughed and pushed a hand into her hair, resting her head against it, her elbow on the back of the chair. Was her hair as silky as it looked? It had to be.

"And how long is awhile?" she asked with a smile. Then she suddenly straightened up and a somber look came across her face. "Or is that bad vampire manners? I don't really know my boundaries here."

You have none, my love. I will lay the world at your feet, you have only to ask. She might find that a little creepy now though. A girl the tender age of about 17 couldn't possibly be ready for what I suddenly felt. That was alright though because I had a lifetime to wait, several, as a matter of fact.

And it just might take me that long to get up the courage to tell her how I felt.

"Carlisle changed me in 1917. He found me in a hospital dying of Spanish Influenza. My parents were already gone. I didn't have much longer myself. He wheeled me out of the ward, briefly apologized for the pain I was about to feel and brought me over."

"That doesn't sound so bad. Did it hurt very much?"

"It was agonizing. It was not something you'd ever want to feel. You burn from the inside out. It's an inferno starting at the bite and working very slowly through your body." I was more forceful in my words and delivery than I intended to be, but just the mere thought of her feeling so much as a paper cut suddenly enraged me.

"My brother seemed to endure it alright," she said softly, dropping her hands to her lap.

Oh shit. Did I just cross a line? Had Emmett intentionally been keeping that from her? It was not something I'd ever want her to go through. I would never want her to lose her soul like we did. Her soul was too pure, too perfect.

"He's very strong." I nodded. "So far, he's adapted better than any of us did right after the change, except maybe Carlisle. But make no mistake, Bella, newborn vampires aren't usually like your brother. They are ruthless and blood-thirsty. Had he been anyone else, you'd likely be dead." Had my family not been there when I first saw her, I probably would have killed her myself. My stomach very nearly rolled over at that thought.

"I don't really understand," she frowned. "How is it that I smell so good? Is it just me? Do I smell like this to every vampire? Is everyone suffering around me?"

"Vampires have preferences, Bella, just like humans; a choice of drug, a choice of wine, a choice of food. You're -" I paused trying to think how best to describe it without unintentionally terrifying her.

"Your brand?" she asked.

"Yes, you are exactly my brand, of everything it seems."

"Is it very difficult for you?"

Not anymore.

"I've conditioned myself to manage it."

"Is it hard to talk about?"

"Only because it makes me think about killing you," I said with frustration. And that was completely unthinkable to me. Her mortality wasn't something I was able to face just yet; though I would have to soon. Just as quickly as I had found her, I'd have to be start preparing for the day that I would lose her.

"Sorry," she said quietly and dropped her gaze.

"For what?" What could she possibly have to apologize to _me_ for? _I'm _the one that's tempted to kill her and _she's_ sorry? What sort of ridiculousness was this?

"For making you think about it," she shrugged, not looking up at me. "I don't really understand all of this; what's bad, what's good; what I can talk about, and what I can't." She huffed out a breath and looked toward the closed bedroom door, then whispered, "I didn't mean to make you angry." I wasn't sure whether or not it was directed toward me.

"You couldn't," I said with absolute certainty, at least speaking for myself.

She laughed a bit. "Oh, I could. Emmett gets very frustrated with me, especially since he was…" she swallowed, "…brought over."

"Does it hurt you to think of it?"

"It really hasn't sunk in yet," she confessed. "It's very surreal to me. I feel like I'm going to wake up any second and it'll all be a dream – a very vivid dream."

Slowly, I reached out and hooked my finger under her chin, raising her face so she looked at me. "Is it a dream you'd want to wake up from?"

"Not particularly," she whispered.

Her breath had hitched just a second before she answered me. Could it be she was as affected as I was? Was it possible she could be? I dared not think about it, yet I couldn't think of anything else.

Reluctantly, I pulled my hand back. But my finger was warm where it touched her soft skin. I wanted to touch her again, but at the same time, I was terrified that, if I did, I might hurt her. She was so very fragile, as evidenced by the fading bruises around her neck and the ones her brother unintentionally had given her. I would have to be very careful with her, even with the most casual of touches. I looked forward to the challenge. I looked forward to getting to know my recently acquired love. Would the others notice the change in me?

Alice saw it. I was sure of it. This is what she had been hiding from me. She was certainly smart in doing so. If I had known that this was coming I would have fought it as much as possible. It occurred to me that Alice must have told Esme, as well. That explained her odd thoughts yesterday.

I wished Alice would open her mind more to me and give me some sort of direction on how I was to handle this new development. Would Bella be terrified at the thought of a vampire being in love with her? How did she see us? She loved her brother, that much was clear, but that didn't mean that she liked the rest of us. Of course, she seemed comfortable enough in my presence. Her casual body language, the normal beat of her heart told me that she wasn't scared or nervous now sitting with me.

What was _wrong_ with her? She _knew_ that her blood called to me more strongly than it did to anyone else in my family. Biologically speaking, I was the most dangerous one to her. I could never hurt her intentionally now, but she didn't know that.

Between her silent mind and her obvious ease with me now, I had solid evidence of the fact that her brain quite clearly functioned differently from normal humans.

And wasn't that just my luck?


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: My beta finally broke through my will. I'm on Twitter at Im2xshy. I can't imagine I'll Tweet anything of, you know, actual interest, but should you wish to follow me, that's where I can be found. Also, I know there're lags between chapters sometimes, but I have an odd writing style. I don't necessarily write in order, like, something popped into my head that won't be posted for quite a few chapters, but it sort of just consumed me for a bit. **

**And as always, thanks to my betas, Felicity Deadwood and Knitzi_Killer. Their awesomeness knows no bounds!**

**By the way, I know some of you read both my Twilight and True Blood stuff. Yes. It appears I'm posting two stories at the same time. We'll see how this goes. I never straddled the fandom fence like this before!**

**7.**

**~Emmett~**

"Uncle Charlie?" I greeted when he picked up on the first ring.

"Emmett! Sweet Jesus, are you alright? Is your sister with you? Is Bella alright?"

"Yes, we're both fine," I confirmed. Bella was chewing on her bottom lip on the couch of the RV and looking at me nervously. She had a book opened up on her lap, but she wasn't reading it. We'd been kind of dreading this call.

"The police are looking everywhere for you. Where are you?"

"Well, we're on our way there," I said hesitantly.

"Where?"

"To Washington; to you."

"Here?" Whatever he was expecting me to say, it wasn't that. "Where are you _now_?"

"We just crossed into Utah. So I guess we'll be at your house sometime tomorrow."

"Why did you leave New Hampshire?"

"There was a fire," I said.

"Yes, I know that."

"Uncle Charlie, did they tell you that Lou…died?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line and I was suddenly afraid that the authorities in New Hampshire might not have told him that part yet.

"Yes," he said. "They did."

"I'm real sorry, Uncle Charlie," I said. And I was, to an extent. Uncle Charlie was a real standup guy. He didn't deserve to have an asshole like Lou for a brother.

"I know you are," he said quickly. "Thank you."

"Well, I don't know if Uncle Lou told you, but I joined the Army. I report for basic this week. So, Bella couldn't really stay there on her own. I thought I'd drop her off with you and she could maybe finish her last year of high school there in Forks."

Again, I was met with silence.

"Here?"

"Okay, I know I probably should have called first before we set out, but I just didn't know who else to go to. You're all we have left, Uncle Charlie." Was I laying it on a little thick? I didn't care. "I mean, since I have to leave for basic, I didn't think the state would let her live by herself, right? They wouldn't let her do that?"

"No, I don't think they would."

"And I have to report to Fort Benning, so it's not like she could stay with me. And the house is totally gone."

"Yeah, I'm kind of surprised it got that hot so quickly. I've never heard of a basic kitchen fire lighting up like that."

"You haven't?" I asked hesitantly. Uh-oh.

"Enough to destroy the entire house that quickly? That was a good sized house. Something seems a little off. But then again, who knows what Lou was really doing," Charlie continued. "Some of the things he got himself into…well, I guess that doesn't matter anymore."

Whew. I skidded by that for now, but we might need to come up with something else. I glanced over to where Jasper was creating quite a convincing PhotoShop picture of me in an Army dress uniform on his laptop. It's for Charlie's mantel, in the event he wanted to display it. Apparently, he's got paperwork too, should it need to be produced. It appeared that Jasper had more talents than just the mood changing thing. Alice, Edward and Rosalie were driving the other cars, but the master manipulator was working on the evidence for my backstory.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Charlie. Things were so crazy I just thought it was best to get to you quick. Like I said, you're all we've got left now and I have to go to Fort Benning. Bella needs somewhere to go and I don't know that I can have her stay with me on the base."

"It's alright, Emmett. I'll talk to the police department in New Hampshire and explain the situation. If they need statements from you and Bella, I'll get them at the station. Don't you worry about it anymore." Good ol' Uncle Charlie.

"Okay, well, hopefully they'll be okay with just Bella's statement. I pretty much have to drop her off tomorrow, take the rental car to the airport and fly to Georgia. I'm cutting it pretty close as it is."

"Tomorrow? I'm working tomorrow. What time are you going to get here?"

"I'm not real sure. Is there a key just in case you're not home? I mean, you don't have to take off work or anything."

"I hate to think of Bella being here all by herself."

"She'll be fine," I assured. "She'll just get settled and one of us will call you when we get there. Forks isn't that big; it won't take you that long to get home, right?"

"No, she wouldn't be by herself that long and there's a key under the eave."

"And Bella's like, totally self-sufficient. She can take care of herself real well and she's a pretty decent cook."

"Oh, gee thanks, Em," Bella muttered from the couch.

"I'm not afraid that she can't take care of herself, Emmett," Charlie said sounding frustrated. "She's been through a pretty traumatic event." He had _no_ idea. "I mean, the last two years have been pretty tough on you two." Again, he had NO idea. "So, I just don't want her to be alone, you know?"

Yeah, Charlie really was the best. Bella would be okay with him.

"School starts in about a week and a half here," Charlie continued. "How much are you two traveling with?"

"Unfortunately, pretty much nothing," I confessed. "I mean, we couldn't get anything from the house. We weren't home at the time the fire started." And _that_ was totally fact.

"Okay, well, I can take her shopping this week and I'll get over to the school and register her."

"Thanks, Uncle Charlie. On my first leave, I thought about going out to our storage unit in Phoenix and getting anything she might need in the way of furniture. I know she really liked that desk she had."

"We'll figure it out."

"But I don't know about…well, Lou controlled all the money."

"Not all of it," Charlie said. And that was something I _didn't_ know. "Lou had physical custody, but I was the trustee of the finances. I was in charge of distributing the money monthly to him. He was always complaining that it wasn't enough, but the attorneys and accountants said it was. Between you and me, Emmett, I'm not sure he used it all for you two. I'm sorry I wasn't successful in getting guardianship of you kids."

"You tried. You've got Bella now, that's what's important," I said softly.

"Yeah." Uncle Charlie was never really one for a lot of emotional words. I'm like him in that regard. "Anyway, we should be good. And you're 18, so you've got a lump sum coming to you, I think."

"No, it's okay. Keep it for Bella. I don't need it. I've got a job now and my housing and stuff is covered by the Army. Bella's going to need a car to get around there, stuff for school. Just use it for her." I was now a member of a very wealthy family. I didn't know how the finances worked, but I didn't think I was going to want for anything.

"Yeah, I guess that's true."

"Bella can send me anything you need me to sign so she can have that money."

"You're a good kid, Em, and you'll make a great soldier. I'm real proud of you."

Okay, well, now I felt like shit for lying to him, but it was what it was.

"Don't make me blush," I shot back. I could see him rolling his eyes in my mind. "Uncle Charlie, I just wanted to say I'm real sorry we made such a mess of things for you." And that was another total truth. I _was_ sorry he got dragged into all this. But I had to do something; Bella deserved her best shot. I had a different future now and hers didn't need to be fucked up because of it.

"None of this is your fault, Emmett, you hear me?" Well, on that we were in complete agreement. "We can talk more about this another time, but you didn't mess anything up. Maybe bolting out of New Hampshire before the authorities could talk to you wasn't the best idea, but you're just kids. What's important is you're both safe. Let's just take things step by step."

"Alright, Uncle Charlie, we'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Call me if you need anything, Emmett."

"I will."

I disconnected the call and looked over at Bella. She was worried; I assumed it was because she didn't know what came next, but I did, at least as far as she was concerned. She'd finish high school in Forks and with luck, go to college. A brainiac like her could probably get a full ride. She'd, I don't know, be a teacher or something. Nah, she was too shy to be a teacher. She'd be a librarian or own a book store or something. That'd be right up her alley.

Unless these Volturi people found us.

Here's to hoping.

**~Edward~**

"Is there a reason you're tailgating the RV so closely?" Alice asked from the passenger seat of my Volvo.

"Is there a reason you're riding with _me_?" I growled in return.

"Jasper's done with his work on Emmett's cover, I didn't need to drive anymore," she shrugged.

"Uh-huh." I wasn't remotely convinced. "That doesn't explain why you're riding with me instead of him."

"Oh come on, Edward. Do you mean to tell me you _aren't_ interested in discussing your little epiphany of yesterday?"

"What's to discuss?" I countered, knowing full well she wouldn't let it drop.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know; what am I going to do about it?" I replied.

"I don't know; you haven't made up your mind!"

"Then why are you asking?" I smirked. She roared in frustration.

"You're awfully juvenile for someone who's 109!"

I chuckled in response and continued to ride right up on the RV's rear bumper. I was trying to catch anything of Bella's voice that I could, which was nothing so far. I also thought if I could get close enough, I could read Carlisle, Esme or Emmett and see her through their thoughts. I was a little more successful at that. I have two medical degrees and a psychology degree and still, I refused to identify my newly obsessive behavior for what it was. I was starting to see shadows of Rosalie's new behavior in me and that was _really_ distasteful to think about.

Bella was reading. She'd been doing that for the last hour or so, at least, that's what it looked like. She could have been sleeping too, I supposed. I liked just looking at her, studying how she did the smallest of things. She seemed to prefer to sit curled up on the couch. She didn't lounge about like her brother did. I couldn't see the title of the book, but I knew she had finished Romeo and Juliet already. I thought she had moved on to Jane Austin, but I couldn't tell.

She also spent some time listening to music. I wasn't close enough to hear what she was listening to on her iPod. That was killing me. What kind of taste in music did she have? That was more important to me than her taste in literature. A melody had started playing in the back of my mind yesterday and my fingers itched for a piano. It had been a while since I had written any of my own music, or really played any music at all. That was sure to make Esme jump for joy.

I was annoyed when I had to leave the RV to drive one of the cars. Did Jasper _really_ have to do Emmett's army credentials _then_? Didn't they understand that I needed to be by Bella? Not only so I could learn everything there was to learn about her, but to keep her scent in my head. I needed to be accustomed to that. Each time I saw her was like the very first time. The urge for her blood was no less diminished and so I needed to have it around me constantly to fight it successfully, of that I was completely convinced.

I was already making plans for when we were parted in Washington. I wasn't really sure yet how I was going to work everything around Emmett. I thought I would sneak into Bella's room at night while she was sleeping. I know this behavior was, well, mildly stalker-ish, but that was the only solution I could think of. However, how exactly could I explain to Emmett my need to be there and NOT have him want to kill me? Or, you know, _actually_ kill me?

"You know, I expected a little more guidance from you," I hissed at Alice.

"In what way?" She laughed.

"I'm in love with a human; she's my mate. What do I do now? Where do I go from here? Does it even work for us?"

"Of course it'll work for you, Edward! She'll fall in love with you too!"

"How much time do I have with her?" I asked softly.

She said nothing, but opened her mind to me. In the vision, Bella and I were running through the woods. We were with the others hunting. But that was ridiculous. I'd never take Bella hunting with us. That would be too dangerous. She could never be around me, smelling the way she did, when I was in that frame of mind, when I was letting loose of my control and giving myself over to my true nature. It would be too dangerous for her. But then, Bella turned in the vision and I saw her straight on.

She had the same identifying features that we did. She was one of us. My heart sank.

"I can't allow that to happen," I shook my head. "I can't allow her to be destroyed like that."

"Maybe _you_ couldn't, but her brother could. He might not be so much against it if there were circumstances like his; if the option was to turn her or she died."

"Is that what happens?" I snapped.

"I haven't seen anything like that," she confessed. "But I can see that she could end up in that situation. She's been exposed to our world, how are we going to keep her from all the dangers of it? How long can we realistically keep her knowledge of us a secret? The Denalis are going to find out eventually, how could they not?"

"They wouldn't turn us in."

"No, I'm sure they wouldn't. But the circle of vampires around her just got bigger. And what if Peter and Charlotte come to visit Jasper? They have before. We have not begun to discuss proper protection for her. I mean _really_ discuss it, Edward; sit down and hash out who watches her when. Nomads coming through the area could catch our scent with hers and become curious. What if she's home alone? She's not _as_ appealing to me as she is to you, but she does smell very good."

"Okay, just stop," I ordered. I didn't like to hear the things she was talking about. I just found her; I couldn't imagine losing her so soon.

But, of course, Alice was right. We would lose her before we were ready, if we ever could actually _be_ ready for something like that, if we didn't fully prepare for every eventuality. We would need Jasper's expertise more than ever and he already had his hands full with Emmett. Not to mention, he still struggled with not feeding on humans, more so than any of the rest of us. It already was a great difficulty for him to be around Bella on his own, then add in there all the emotional monitoring he had to do and it was a wonder he didn't snap. Not a very comforting thought.

"You've made your point," I continued. "And you're absolutely right. We'll have to have a family meeting on the subject as soon as possible."

"We can protect her, Edward," she said emphatically. "She'll mean a lot to me, too. We _will_ protect her."

I nodded in agreement. There wasn't anything to do _but _agree. There were no other options. She had to be protected. Always. She _had_ to be. I couldn't have it any other way.

**~Bella~**

"Alright, this is my cell phone number, Bella," Emmett said writing it down for me. I looked down at the small shiny phone in my hand. I would have to figure out how to use it. At least I had something to do after my crying jag tonight. I would be alone for the first time as soon as Emmett left. I was both dreading it and looking forward to it.

"Do you have any questions about how to use that phone?" He asked pointing to the one in my hand. "I can get Alice to come in."

"It doesn't look too complicated," I said softly. I looked around Charlie's small living room. My new home. It looked very much like a bachelor's house, but it also looked very welcoming. I would be comfortable enough here.

This wasn't the scary part anyway; it was starting a new school. I didn't even want to think about that.

"You call me whenever you need to; whenever you want to, okay?" He said. I nodded. "I told you I'm always here for you and I am. Rose says we can get from the house to here in minutes through the woods."

"Okay," I said. My voice was still hoarse and I could feel my bottom lip start to quiver. I was going to lose it. Big time.

"Aw, fuck this. I bet I'll be alright around Charlie," Emmett said.

"No!" Suddenly I was able to pull it together. "No, Emmett, don't even risk it. You'd never forgive yourself if you hurt him. Yeah, I'm upset. A lot's happened in a very short time, but I'll be fine. I'll cry my eyes out for a little while and then I'll be fine."

"Do you want me to stay while you cry at least?"

I was struck speechless for a second.

"Who are you and what have you done with my brother?" I replied.

"Fuck it." He threw up his hands and paced away. "I will never make that offer again."

"I can't believe you made it that time! Go! Go join the army, corporal."

"Private."

"Whatever."

"No, not whatever, you've got to get that right. You don't think Charlie would find it strange that you can't remember my rank?"

I sighed heavily. He was right. "I'll remember it," I promised.

"Jasper will give you a picture. You can show it off to all your friends at school." He wiggled his eyebrows and I rolled my eyes. He meant the _girls_ at school. I wondered what his hottie Rosalie would think of that.

"What friends at school? I'm not going to know anyone. And I'm not going to meet anyone. It's not like I'm bubbly and outgoing."

"You'll know Alice, Edward and Jasper," he replied. "And you'll meet people. Apparently, the high school here is super small. Everyone knows everyone since, like, birth."

"Oh great, I'll fit right in."

"Cheer up. You'll have an immediate circle of friends. AND you'll have friends that can rip off the arms of the boys who get too close. I know that makes me feel good."

"Somehow, I think ripping kids' arms off won't endear the Cullens to the townfolk."

"I honestly don't think they care."

"Alright, well," I sighed and looked at him. I felt my eyes fill up. "Just go. Seriously. Just rip the band-aid off. It's not going to get any easier for either one of us."

"No, that's not true," he wagged a finger at me. "As soon as I'm a nice distance away, it's going to get a LOT easier for me, at least physically." I didn't think of that. I kept forgetting about the fact that each second he was in my presence, he was actually experiencing pain. It was just what I needed. The tears dried up, though I had no doubt they'd return later.

"You're absolutely right." I waved my hands at him. "Get out of here. Really. Look at me, I'm fine."

"You do look kind of fine. You're not even upset a little bit anymore?"

"Emmett!" I shouted in frustration.

"Alright, I'm going." He started walking toward the door. As soon as he was gone, I was to call Charlie at the station and tell him I was here. He'd be home within half an hour. "Don't forget what Jasper said, even when you're alone, you're not really alone. Someone will always be around. Someone will always be watching."

"And really, Emmett, that's actually kind of creepy," I said, as I pushed him towards the door, not that there was really any actual successful pushing involved.

"Alright, fine." He stopped and pulled me into an unexpected crushing hug. "I love you, Bells, you're going to be fine." I wasn't sure if that was for me or for him, but I held on tight.

"I love you too."

"I'm outta here."

And he finally was.

And I was finally alone.


	8. Chapter 8

**8.**

**A/N: Not mine; no copyright infringement intended.**

**Thanks to my superbetas Kitzni-Killer (And the day I spell that right, I will rejoice much) and Felicity Deadwood. I strongly encourage you to go check out their stuff. I promise you, you won't be disappointed!**

**~Edward~**

Bella's new home was shockingly easy to enter. Does the Chief of Police _really_ leave a spare key to the front door right there under the eave? For Bella's sake, I hoped he was a light sleeper and possessed a soft trigger finger. Didn't he know how evil the world was? Maybe he thought because he had firearms and a Taser in the house that knowledge would warn off the malcontents, but there are things in the world much worse than common burglars.

Vampires, for example.

Vampires that can slip in and out completely undetected.

Then again, there aren't any human security systems that can keep vampires out. Not a comforting thought right about now.

I wandered silently around the lower level of the house for a bit, familiarizing myself with every nook and cranny, the exact placement of every piece of furniture, the scents, the shadows, the sounds. The ticking of the mantle clock, the hum of the refrigerator, the green glow of the microwave clock; all were the sights and sounds of a quiet house at night.

My family thought I was hunting. And, of course, I did hunt before I came here. Chief Swan was sleeping now and his presence in the house was the only assurance I had that Emmett wouldn't show up and find me here. Eventually, I was going to have to come clean regarding my feelings for his sister, but I would rather come clean with Bella first. Which I would do, of course… eventually.

I pulled open the refrigerator door. There didn't seem to be a lot of food in there. Didn't Bella need more food than what I saw? There were a lot of Styrofoam containers. It looked like Chief Swan got a lot of meals to go. Emmett said Bella was a pretty good cook, so maybe she could improve on her uncle's diet a bit.

I scanned the living room. There was a locked gun cabinet in the corner. It looked like Chief Swan was quite the hunter. I saw his pistol holster hanging by the front door. I certainly hoped he had another gun upstairs in his bedroom with him. He'd never have enough time to get downstairs and get to this one, should some sort of renegade take over the house in the middle of the night.

My thought process was clearly deteriorating. I spent entirely too much time lately obsessing over all the horrible things that could happen to humans, things I never really gave too much thought to before. Right at that moment, Bella and Chief Swan had the best security they could in the form of a vampire that had taken human lives before and would not hesitate to do so again if Bella were in danger.

And I worked for free.

I smirked as I caught sight of Jasper's handiwork on the mantle. That was a pretty convincing picture of Emmett in an Army dress uniform. Chief Swan was obviously proud of his nephew as the picture was displayed right between two truly horrid school pictures of Bella and Emmett that clearly looked like they were from elementary school. Was Bella vain enough to make them disappear after she settled in? Somehow, I suspected not.

When I had truly covered every inch of the first floor, I finally gave in to my real reason for being here and started upstairs in search of where Bella slept. I heard her clearly up the stairs and to the left, but before I indulged myself, I poked around Chief Swan's bedroom. He was snoring peacefully, sprawled out across the bed like a man that hasn't had to share it in a while.

If you're keeping track, I did locate a second gun in the drawer of the nightstand next to the bed and another one on the top shelf of the closet.

I poked in the hall closets, noted a drop down door for an attic in the ceiling that I would explore at a later date, the bathroom and then finally, the second bedroom.

The quiet, steady metronome of Bella's heartbeat brought me forward. The door creaked quietly as I opened it just enough to peer in at first. Bella was sleeping on a double bed in the middle of the room, tangled up in the sheets. Her heart beat softly in my head, soothing me just as much as it aroused the monster that I kept hidden deep inside.

The bedroom window was wide open, which made the room comfortable, though I still found it odd that she had the window opened like that in a strange place. I would have to ask her about it…eventually.

I knelt down quietly in front of her and studied her face. It was puffy and red, like she had recently cried herself to sleep. So she did finally break. I was curious how long she could maintain the strength she had shown so far. It looked like she was able to hold it exactly until she was truly alone and finally let herself breakdown. I was both happy and sad to see this. I was happy that she finally had her time of catharsis, but sad that there wasn't anyone there to comfort her. Even if it was her brother that comforted her and not me I would have preferred that someone be with her.

How alone she must have felt. What was it like to have lost a mother, have no father to speak of, and be moved all the way to the other side of the country and placed in the care of a monster, live through what she had, only to be uprooted and brought to another corner of the country? Of course she had Emmett, but not in the way she used to. He wasn't constantly with her in Chief Swan's house. Was she close to her uncle? Were things comfortable on her first night or awkward? Did she want to be with us? Did she miss us? Did she miss _me_ as I missed her? Was she aching like I was?

We were to start her security rotation that night, beginning with Alice, which was why I dared to come here. She would have seen it anyway. With the exception of Emmett, who would be accompanied by Rosalie, we were each going to take a shift watching the house. I, of course, planned to take my evening turns indoors. I suspected Alice did, too. After all, she was very excited about the girl that would soon become her best friend.

During the day once school started, Alice, Jasper and I would be with her there. We would take the weekends according to Bella's plans. Emmett assumed she'd spend a lot of her time out at the house with us. Maybe it was one of those weekends that I would teach her to dance. For now, we were doing longer rotations. Alice would still be watching in the morning and would be relieved in the afternoon.

Silently, I pushed away from the bed and moved around the sparsely furnished room. There was a bed, a dresser and a rocking chair. That was it. She would need more, of course; a desk to work on, a modem line for a computer, book shelves, art for her walls, a stereo with CDs. All I saw now was her iPod on the nightstand next to the bed. It was nice that her brother thought to grab it out of the house, but he clearly didn't take the time to find the charger, or take a computer for her to download music from.

I decided I would take that on, as well as bring her any books she might want from the library at the house. Carlisle was an avid book collector, but because of his perfect vampiric memory, he rarely read a book more than once. However, he needed to be surrounded by them, as it seemed she did too. He'd like Bella to have whatever she wanted. I smiled as I thought of how they could bond over their love of literature. It was important to me that she have things in common with each of us; that she fit in. Quite frankly, I really didn't see how she couldn't.

Bella had asked Emmett to get her desk out of storage. Perhaps he'd go get that for her sooner rather than later. I recognized his scent in the small room, so he had already checked out the room she would sleep in. Maybe he left through the open window? I supposed that could be possible if Chief Swan came home while Emmett was still inside the house. I was uneasy with the window open like that since there were now, and would be more soon, many vampire scents around the house. Surely it would attract any nomads passing through.

But once again, a closed and locked window wouldn't stop a vampire from getting in…or any other supernatural creature that might live in the area, but that was a totally different conversation we had to have. Or maybe not. It didn't seem like it was an issue anymore as we didn't smell anyone other than ourselves in the area.

Bella shifted position and my attention was drawn back to her. I moved silently to the rocking chair in the corner. I would leave the window open for now just in case I needed to leave quickly. She might be startled to wake up and find one of us in her room. She settled down again and I sat silently in the rocking chair facing her bed, ready to start my evening vigil.

**~Bella~**

I was a little chilly when I woke up on my first morning in Forks. I fell asleep with the window opened last night. At first, I merely opened it to air out the room after I sobbed my eyes out. The cool air felt restorative then. I was going to close it, but I remembered how Emmett jumped into the window in New Hampshire when I was in trouble and though I felt confident that Uncle Charlie posed no threat to me, I thought… 'just in case' and left it open.

When I sat up in bed, I had a very eerie feeling that I wasn't alone. I got the distinct impression that someone else was in the bedroom with me, but I didn't see anyone and chalked it up to paranoia. I probably just wasn't used to the shadows that were cast by the trees outside yet. New place, new life; that'd freak out anyone, right?

Uncle Charlie said he'd go to the bank this morning and get money from our trust account so I could go shopping for whatever I needed for school. He registered me yesterday afternoon and got a supply list from the office. I had already read everything on the English literature list. There wasn't going to be much of a work challenge there. Maybe when Emmett went to get my desk out of storage, I could see if he'd grab my folder of essays from my boxes. I'm sure I could reuse them. That was probably considered cheating, but Emmett wouldn't care.

Charlie was going to take the morning shift at work today so he could leave early and take me up to the mall in Port Angeles; then we'd go looking for a car for me. That was a strange idea; I'd never had a car of my own. I didn't know what happened to the one Emmett had in New Hampshire, but he'd driven us everywhere we had needed to go.

Uncle Charlie was really great last night. He didn't hover over me. He explained some things about the house and where things were in town. We decided since I could cook and he could only order out, that I'd take over the responsibility of preparing dinner. I was alright with that. It made me feel useful. And I needed things to do, especially since I knew nobody here and other than the cell phone Emmett had given me, I had no contact with the outside world. Charlie didn't have a computer and so was baffled by my asking about a modem connection. I guess it didn't matter anyway, since I didn't have a computer either.

I had given Charlie a shopping list for the supermarket in town and he promised to go on his way home. With no other real direction to my day, I grabbed the toiletries I had and headed for the shower. That took up all of half an hour from the moment I got out of bed to the moment my hair was completely dried.

I wandered around the house a bit, poking in cabinets, looking at the movie collection and flipping through the channels on television. I settled on a documentary about raising sunken ships.

No matter what I did though, I couldn't shake the impression that I was being watched. I'm sure it was because Emmett said that I'd never truly be alone and so that was stuck in the back of my mind, but where were they? Who was out there now and why wouldn't they come in? It couldn't have been Emmett or he _would_ have come in.

I felt ridiculous when I realized I was hoping it was Edward and if it _was_ Edward, I was disappointed he wasn't coming inside.

I thought about him all the time. He was beautiful, inside and out. He seemed so attentive and curious. I knew he could never be interested in me in the way I was in him, but it didn't stop the girlish fantasies. I never had a boyfriend before and I doubted Edward was interested in stepping into that role, but still…

I wondered what the Cullens would be like in school. Edward, Alice and Jasper were all going to enroll in the local high school. It did make me feel better to know they would be there and I really wouldn't be alone. Would it seem weird to the other kids that I knew them already? Did I have to pretend I didn't? What kind of story were they going to give to the other kids? How were they going to explain their lack of parents? They all dressed liked they stepped off of a runway, so how were they going to explain that? I was sure the kids here were just as normal as the kids in New Hampshire and Phoenix, but I doubted they dressed in designer clothes. Weren't they worried about standing out?

It was strange to think about vampires lurking in America's high schools. But then I supposed there wasn't too much else for them to do. I wondered if Buffy the Vampire Slayer was still on TV. I'd never watched it before, but now it could almost be considered research. Emmett had yet to show me what he meant by not being allowed to show himself in the sunlight. That was pretty suspicious. And so what did they do about school on nice days then? Not show up? How did they explain that?

I was surprised when Charlie's police cruiser pulled into the driveway. My thoughts had kept me occupied all morning. I saw he had an armload of grocery bags and it looked like there was more in the trunk, so I pulled on my shoes and ran out to help him.

"Hey! How was your morning?" He greeted me cheerfully. I loved Uncle Charlie's smile. The smile reached his eyes and when he smiled, he looked so much like my mother.

"All right. I just sort of lounged around and watched TV."

"That's good. You deserve a lazy day. I think I got out enough money for what you need today. One of the guys at the station was telling me about the laptop computer they got last year. Kind of sounded like something you'd like for school, maybe you could email your friends back in Phoenix or something, talk to Emmett more. The guy told me how much he spent, so I got enough to buy one of them too if you want."

"Wow. Well, thanks, Uncle Charlie."

"I know coming here is kind of a culture shock, Bells, so I just want to make it more comfortable for you. Forks is a small town, but it's not quite the end of the world."

"Kind of feels like it," I muttered.

"That's what I like about it."

I blushed when I realized he'd heard me, but he didn't seem offended. This small town suited him. He was real outdoorsy. He liked hunting and fishing. I could see how my mother wasn't that fond of it though. She liked the sun and warmth. They grew up here; my mom, Charlie and Lou. I involuntarily shuddered at the memory of Lou. Was he always horrible? I didn't really remember him being so horrible when our mom was alive.

I went back out to the car for another load of groceries and felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Yes, I was being watched. I was definitely being watched.

But by whom?

They wouldn't come out when Charlie was here, I supposed. How could they explain who they were? I hoped in a few weeks they would. I wanted to see them again. I wanted to see Emmett and I found myself most especially wanting to see Edward. I wanted to see where they lived. Esme said I could go to the house whenever I wanted, but at the moment, I didn't even know where it was.

I missed Esme. I missed how motherly she was and I found myself really needing my mother. The cell phone in my pocket suddenly felt pretty heavy. I longed to call them and tell them to come and get me, but I wouldn't be able to explain where I was going, or who they were, or how I met them. I wasn't supposed to know anyone here yet.

Despite the fact that somewhere in the woods was a silent companion for me, despite Charlie's whistling in the kitchen while he was putting away the groceries, I felt very much alone.

**~Alice~**

"This is boring," I announced from my perch in the tree.

"What is, my dear?" Jasper replied from where he was leaning against the tree below me.

"Why can't I just go in and talk to her?" I complained. "How come Edward gets all the time to get to know her and I have to wait? She's going to be important to me too, you know."

"So you've said, darling," he dutifully answered.

"Then I should get to go in and talk to her! We could both go. Or you could stay out here, if you want."

"And how are you going to explain your presence to her uncle?"

"I'll think of something," I shrugged belligerently, though in truth, there really wasn't anything I could come up with. "She knows we're out here!" I said. "What if she's offended that we're out here and not coming in? Don't you think that it's good manners to go up to the door and say 'hi?'"

He looked up at me with sympathy. He knew how much I ached for a friend, a genuine friend and now I was going to have one in Bella. An actual girlfriend. Can you blame me for being excited? I've never had an actual girlfriend before that I could remember. Excuse me for wanting to get the show on the road!

Suddenly, the conversation inside caught my attention.

"Shopping!" I hissed and ignored Jasper's chuckling below. "_He's_ going to take her shopping? There's no possible way the two of them are going to get this right. I _have_ to go in there, Jazz! I _have_ to. It's for the greater good."

"You know how I hate to deny you anything, my love, but I'm afraid I have to insist you not go in there."

I dropped down out of the tree in a huff, crossed my arms over my chest and pouted.

"Patience," he drawled. "Patience and you shall be rewarded."

"That's crap."

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me from behind. He dropped his chin to my shoulder and we watched the house together.

My warrior. He had so much compassion in him and that bitch Maria forced him to bury it so deeply. It comes out more and more now, but he is still, first and foremost, the warrior. "She's very clumsy, Jazz," I said softly.

"So you've told me a dozen times already."

"I'm just afraid. I'm sure her blood will be shed around us upon occasion and that worries me."

"I will do my best not to disappoint you," he said softly in my ear.

"You couldn't disappoint me, Jasper," I replied, just as quietly.

"I could if I hurt her." He nodded toward the house, as neither of us took our eyes off it. "And I couldn't bear to disappoint you that way."

"She's worth it, Jasper, I promise you that."

"You don't have to convince me." He pressed a kiss to my cheek and held me tighter.

"He is too." I felt him tense a bit and then relax again. He liked Emmett enough but didn't know what to make of him. Emmett was kind of breaking the newborn mold and that's not something Jasper was really prepared for. "He's going to be our strength. He's going to be next to impossible to take down. And he's loyal; loyal to the bone."

"No kidding. We're standing here watching his human sister's house because he's so loyal."

"You would respect that attribute."

"And I do. I'm just worried," he confessed. "Having a human around, knowing everything, is dangerous. We've exposed ourselves and the penalty for that is death, Alice. I can't allow that for you. Is she worth that, Alice?"

"Yes," I said simply. "She completes our family, Jasper. She's the weakest link now and so we have to protect her."

"We can't protect her from the Volturi."

I looked back at him and grinned wryly, then looked back at the house. "Oh, I'm not so sure about that."


	9. Chapter 9

**9.**

**A/N: Because the Daytona 500 is today and it's put me in a good mood, I'm posting an extra chapter this week. And it's much longer too. :D Go Kasey! (Secretly I'm rooting for Danica. Girl power!) But I love you most, Kasey and if you could, you know, actually WIN, that'd be a nice change. ;)**

**~Edward~**

Bella looked sad as she was dropped off at the school by her uncle in his police cruiser. She sent a long look at the front doors, then turned and gave her uncle a half-hearted wave. He waved back encouragingly and then drove away.

There was an orientation session today for the new students. Alice and Jasper were already inside, but I stayed outside to wait for Bella. I wanted to see her first in the open air before we were inside in a small, closed-in room. She couldn't see me from my position behind a tree when she pulled up, but now that her uncle was gone, I stepped out of the shadows of the tree and school building.

"Hi, Bella," I greeted walking up to her at a human pace.

She whirled around quickly. At first, there was surprise on her face, but it quickly changed to joy. "Edward!" She smiled hugely and then most unexpectedly threw her arms around my neck.

The fire ripped down my throat at her sudden contact. I braced myself against it, then breathed in deeply and reminded myself that I had missed her since I saw her last…while she was sleeping and didn't know I was there.

I knew I shouldn't, that I would only be torturing myself, but I hugged her back. I didn't want her to think I was rude, after all. Of course, it felt just _right_, as I knew it would.

"One would think that you missed us," I laughed gently and depressingly extricated myself from her embrace.

"I didn't think you would be here. I mean it makes sense, of course, but still…" she trailed off, and biting her lip, looked over at the school. "Are Alice and Jasper inside too?"

"Yes, of course," I smiled. "We start school tomorrow, as well."

"Why are you out here?"

I was hoping she wouldn't ask that question, but like Emmett said, she missed nothing.

"I haven't seen you in a while; it's easier if I see you outside first."

"Oh," she said then blushed. "I'm sorry. I didn't really think of that."

"You don't need to apologize."

"But I make you feel uncomfortable."

No, love, you make me feel amazing.

But, of course, I couldn't say that.

"Not like you used to, believe me. I'm confident I won't hurt you."

"I'm not worried," she smiled lightly.

"You should be, you know," I replied as we turned and walked toward the building together. "Not all vampires abstain from hunting humans. Never forget that."

"Everyone's been so wonderful to me," she shrugged my warning off. "It just doesn't seem like it's possible. And you just told me not to worry."

"About me," I replied. "I can only make assurances about myself. Emmett said you tend to have, well, mishaps. You haven't been around us while you were bleeding yet."

"He told you -" She turned to gape at me a bit like a fish and blushed again. Then she seemed to grow angry. Very angry. "He needs to shut up and remember I've got dirt on him, too. I don't run around telling everyone mortifying details about him, now do I? What if I told Rosalie something embarrassing? Let's see how he likes it!"

I smiled as she suddenly turned from kitten to tigress while she threatened her brother's wellbeing. I liked watching her go toe-to-toe with her brother. She was feisty and they were fascinating. They weren't afraid to get in each other's faces.

And I was most interested in that she used Rosalie as an example of someone Emmett wouldn't want something embarrassing leaked to. Did that mean she specifically didn't want me to know things she deemed embarrassing, too? Should I read anything into that? I was, of course, going to obsess over what she had just said.

"And I could, you know," she continued as we reached the school doors and I opened one to allow her to enter first. Instead, she stood there, faced me and continued her rant. "It's not like he hasn't done anything embarrassing in his life. I mean, have you seen the size of him? It's not like he's Mr. Graceful. He can be like a bull in a china shop. And he'll stick his foot in his mouth a few times a day, too. He's no saint!"

"Am I in trouble or is Emmett?" I asked.

"What?" She blinked and then looked back at me. She saw me standing there holding the door opened for her. "Oh," she muttered and hurried inside, stumbling a bit over the door jam.

I have to say, I liked watching her while she was awake a hell of a lot better than watching her while she slept. The range of emotions this girl had run through in the mere minutes since she got to the school was just fascinating.

We checked in at the main office where a portly Mrs. Cope seemed flustered as she found our names, schedules and showed us where we could find the classroom hosting the orientation.

Bella and I had a few classes together and that made me extremely happy. She had all AP and college prep classes.

"We're in biology, English and Spanish together," I noted.

"Oh really?" she asked interested and then looked over at my schedule too. "And we have lunch at the same time."

"The whole school probably does. It's not that big."

"Have you ever been to a small school?" She asked as we moved through the hallways. I followed Alice and Jasper's thoughts, rather than use the map Mrs. Cope gave us.

"A few times."

"A few times? How many times have you been through high school?"

"Let's just say we matriculate a lot."

"That must be miserable," she frowned. "Repeating high school over and over."

"It is. But the younger we start out at a given place, the longer we can stay there."

"I guess I didn't think of that. Hey, do I ask you too many questions?" She grabbed my forearm to get my attention, as if she didn't have it already, and we stopped walking.

Well, I wasn't expecting that. Her hand felt incredible on my arm. My God, she was only touching my arm and I felt amazing. What would happen if she kissed me? How would I feel? Of course, that was ridiculous. She'd never want to kiss a vampire. But what if she did…

"Edward?" Uh oh. It happened again. How long had she been waiting for an answer? What was her question? "I do, don't I? I ask too many questions. Emmett says I'm too detail oriented. I can't help it though. I'm sorry if I pry too much."

"No," I shook my head. "You don't ask too many questions. I don't mind answering them."

"You don't?"

How could I when I was practically addicted to the very sound of her voice?

"No. In fact, I have questions for you, too."

"Oh…really?" She looked surprised.

"Yes."

"I'm not that interesting."

"I think you are," I shrugged as we began to walk again. "Besides, it's called 'getting to know each other.' Don't you think we should get to know each other better?"

Her breath hitched and her heart skipped a beat. I immediately shot my attention to her face, but she didn't look to be in any sort of distress. What an odd occurrence.

"I do," she nodded quickly. "I would like to get to know you better."

"Good," I smiled at her as we arrived at the classroom. She stared at me for a minute. It almost looked like she checked out. "Bella?" I asked growing concerned.

"Hmm?"

"Are you alright?"

"What? Oh. Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I was just…I don't know…dazzled for a second."

"Dazzled?"

"Yes, you were standing there, and the light, it –" Her eyes widened. God! _Why_ couldn't I read her thoughts? This was maddening! "Nevermind." Nevermind? Nevermind! She turned and hurried into the classroom. She greeted Alice and Jasper – without hugs I noted.

Alice grinned at me knowingly and then dove into chatter with Bella. We sat in the row straight across. Alice finally stopped talking when the teacher came in to start the orientation session. Bella kept her attention raptly forward the entire time as I and my brother and sister, looked like we were paying attention, but we barely hung on.

Alice was anticipating her next chance to spend time with Bella; there was a summer thunderstorm coming in and Jasper was thinking about getting a baseball game together. That would be fun. It had been awhile since we played and now with the addition of Emmett, it would even the teams out a bit.

As for me, I kept playing mine and Bella's conversation over and over in my mind and analyzed each little piece of it.

I couldn't be entirely sure, but I was almost positive that 'dazzled' was a good thing.

**~Bella~**

Okay, my truck could be heard pulling into the student parking lot from, like, miles away. I was doing my best not to care about it though because the truck was just awesome. It was this old red Chevy with this really bulbous cab. It was so vintage. Emmett was probably going to hate it, but I loved it. I felt like I was driving a tank.

However, as I'm not someone that likes attention on her, having a loud truck sort of defeats that purpose. Maybe Rosalie could quiet it down for me. This truck would probably give her a challenge.

I saw Edward, Alice and Jasper standing next to Edward's Volvo and made my way over to them. Everyone in the parking lot was looking at me. But at least once I pulled up to the Cullens, everyone would be looking at them too. And because each of them was so impossibly beautiful, I was banking on everyone continuing to look at them and right past me.

I hopped out of my truck with a big smile and slammed the door.

"Do you think I need to lock this?" I asked them. "Probably not, right?"

"What the hell _is_ it, Bella?" Jasper asked; Alice elbowed him in the ribs.

"It's my new truck!" I said proudly. "Charlie got some money out of mine and Emmett's trust account and we bought it from a friend of his down on the La Push Reservation."

"You went to LaPush?" Edward asked quickly.

"Yes. Do you know it?"

"Very well."

He had an odd look on his face, but I didn't press him for details. Granted he _said_ I didn't ask too many questions, I still kind of thought I did. Who wouldn't be curious about actual real vampires though?

"Well, the good news is, this thing's like a tank," Jasper said, eyeing the body of my truck up. "So, if you're ever in an accident, your chances are pretty good."

"That's what Uncle Charlie said," I replied, though I didn't miss another odd look come over Edward's face. What was wrong with him today? He seemed fine enough yesterday. He couldn't possibly be nervous about the first day of school.

As we walked toward the school, _everyone_ in the parking lot stopped to stare. I found myself trying to wedge myself between Jasper and Edward so no one could see me straight on. Alice continued to chatter away about nothing in particular. I don't know if she was trying to make me feel more comfortable or not, but I found myself grateful.

As we got closer to the school, I suddenly felt much more relaxed and wasn't nervous at all. That was very unlike me, but I wasn't going to question it. Maybe being around the Cullens gave me courage.

My first class was geometry and I had it all by myself. At least my second class would be with Edward. I didn't know where Edward's first classroom was, but he came with me right to the door of my room. He glanced inside, almost like he was doing a security sweep of the room or something.

"I'll meet you back here at the end of class so we can walk to English together," he said.

"Okay. I'll see you later." I turned around and walked right into the door jamb.

"Perhaps I should walk you to your desk." Edward chuckled. We couldn't _all_ be perfect vampires.

"Shut up," I muttered, then held my head high and walked into room and over to the teacher.

The teacher pointed me to an empty desk next to a brunette who looked entirely too excited given what time of the morning it was.

"Hi!" she greeted enthusiastically as I sat down. "I'm Jessica Stanley. You're one of the new kids, aren't you? I saw you all walk in together."

"Umm, yes," I said quietly. She was much more outgoing than I was. "I'm Bella Swan."

"Swan," she asked with a small frown. "Are you any relation to the police chief?"

"Yes, he's my uncle. I'm staying with him now."

"Oh." She looked like she wanted to press me for more details then, but thankfully didn't.

"What about the others you walked into school with? Do you know them?"

"Oh, I, um, met them yesterday at orientation. They're Edward and Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale."

"What's their story, do you know?"

I think I just met the class gossip. I tried to think of the Cullens' backstory, but they hadn't really given it to me yet. "Not really."

"The boys are _really_ good looking." She dropped the tone of her voice.

"Yes," I agreed.

"Who's the brown haired one?"

"That's Edward."

"I wonder if he has a girlfriend," she said idly as she twisted a lock of hair around her finger.

"I didn't ask," I replied, even though I knew the answer.

I started to wonder if this Jessica Stanley would be Edward's type. She was bubbly and outgoing. Not beautiful, but pretty enough. I was just then realizing that Edward was the gorgeous new boy that all the girls were going to want to date. I glanced around the classroom at the other girls in the room. They seemed normal enough. Would Edward be interested in any of them? What if he was? How would he explain things about himself? I didn't think they could just date a human, one that didn't know what they were anyway.

It had never even occurred to me that the boys in the school might be sizing me up the same way until Jessica said, "Do _you_ have a boyfriend?"

"No," I said quickly. "No, I don't."

"Where did you move here from?"

"New Hampshire."

"Wow," she said, sounding a little surprised. "That's pretty far."

"Yeah," I agreed.

I was happy when the teacher called the class to order. The good thing about moving out there when I did was that it was the first day of the new school year, so at least I wasn't starting behind. It would be an easy week all around, or should be anyway.

The class sounded pretty easy, as far as grading policy went and geometry didn't seem that difficult all in all as I flipped through the book. I smiled lightly as I realized if I had any problems with it, I could probably ask any one of the Cullens to help as they had probably taken the course two or three times.

I was relieved when the bell rung. I popped up quickly to avoid any more questions from my inquiring neighbor and hurried to the door. However, as frustrating as Emmett was, he was right. I'm not stealthy and so I crashed right into someone at the classroom door.

"I'm sorry," I immediately apologized and then looked up into a pair of dark eyes. The boy standing there looked astonished, possibly more surprised than I was.

"No, it's okay." He tried to steady me, but that was pretty much an exercise in futility. "You're – which one are you?"

"Um, I'm Bella Swan." I said and then glanced at the door. Edward was thankfully standing there with a smirk on his face.

"I'm Eric Yorkie." He said and then awkwardly shook my hand. "Do you need any help finding your next class?"

"Oh, um, no, Edward's going to walk with me. We have our next class together."

I gestured to where Edward was standing just outside the door and when I looked back at Eric, he seemed to be scowling. Odd.

"Oh, well, okay then," he muttered. "It's nice to meet you. See you around."

He scurried off and I looked after him. What an odd boy.

"Ready?" Edward asked in his velvety voice next to me.

"Yeah, sure." I nodded.

"How was class?"

"It was, I don't know, it was geometry, I guess."

He chuckled next to me and I was just going to ask what he thought of his first class when an overly excited female voice called me from behind.

"Bella! Bella!" I turned around to see Jessica Stanley rushing up to us. "I just wanted to see where your next class was." But she ruined that excuse by turning and positively beaming at Edward. "Hi, I'm Jessica Stanley. You're Edward?"

"Yes, it's nice to meet you." Edward's manners were impeccable and he nodded at Jessica in greeting.

"Oh…thanks…" Yeah, she got dazzled too. Thank God it wasn't just me. At least I wouldn't be the only girl turning myself into an idiot over Edward.

The three of us stood there in silence for a moment; Jessica batting her eyes at Edward and Edward and I looking at her expectantly.

"Well, we're going to head on over to our next class now," Edward said slowly, when it became clear that Jessica had temporarily lost the power of speech. He put his arm up on my shoulder to turn me in the direction we were originally heading. That seemed to snap Jessica back into the realm of the cognitively with it.

"Oh, yeah. That's what I wanted. I wanted to see where your next class was."

"It's English," I replied, praying the overly friendly Jessica didn't also have that class now.

"Oh, I've got French." She looked disappointed. "I guess I'll catch up with you later." Then she turned back to Edward and lit up like a light bulb. "It was nice meeting you, Edward."

Edward just turned me away and moved pretty quickly for our next classroom. All along the way people stopped to look at us. "Everyone is staring at us," I muttered under my breath.

"No, not everyone; not that guy. Oh, no, he just looked."

I couldn't stop the burst of laughter in response. He was almost playful and I didn't think I had seen him like that before.

"You should smile more," he said in response to my laughter. "It suits you."

"You should be more playful," I volleyed back. "It suits _you_."

"Playful?" He seemed to turn that over in his head. "I don't think anyone has ever called me 'playful' before. I will take it under consideration."

I chuckled again at his formality, such a stark contrast to his demeanor just a minute ago. "Edward, I have to say, I'm _really_ glad you're here today. You're making the day a lot easier."

He stopped us just outside the classroom. "Anytime you need me, Bella, I'll be there for you. I swear it."

I cocked my head to the side and looked up at him. His golden eyes looked intense and serious all of the sudden. I got a chill up my spine as I realized he really _meant_ that. Before I could respond, he turned into the classroom. I followed him to the two empty seats he found about half-way into the room. Everyone in there seemed to gawk at us. I started to squirm a bit. I wasn't used to being the center of attention and I didn't like it. It didn't seem to bother Edward at all. He seemed to be intently studying the reading list that was already out on our desks – the same list we were given the day before at orientation.

"Edward," I whispered.

"Hold on; I'm listening."

Listening? To what? It was just aimless chatter. I looked around the room. It really did seem like everyone was looking at us. Well, hopefully they were looking at Edward, but it didn't seem like it.

"You're a very popular girl today," he murmured sitting up straighter and smirking over at me.

"What? How do you know?"

"I told you; I was listening."

"I can't hear anyone. They're all whispering. You have much better hearing than I do."

He furrowed his brow. "You didn't know what I meant when I said I was 'listening?'" He added extra emphasis on the word 'listening,' which only confused me more. "Emmett didn't tell you?"

"Well, he said he hears better now than he did before, if that's what you mean." I dropped my voice as low as I could. There were quite a lot of people paying close attention to us right then.

"No, that's not what I meant. It must not have come up yet. We'll talk later."

He turned his attention to the teacher when she entered the room. The rest of the class reluctantly turned to face the front of the room. I was glad the attention was diverted from Edward and I. I turned over Edward's cryptic comment in my head. What did he mean by 'listening?' I mean, what else could it mean? What didn't Emmett tell me?

**~Edward~**

Quite honestly, I couldn't decide who was more popular on our first day at Forks High School, us or Bella. It seemed that the majority of the students had figured out on their own that Jasper and Alice were a couple; now, they were just trying to figure out if it was legal, since we were supposedly adopted by Carlisle and Esme. Bella and I seemed to be 'up for grabs.'

Wonderful.

Bella threw me for a bit of a loop this morning announcing she had gone down to La Push yesterday with her uncle. Of course, it explained where she was during our shift change as Esme was relieved of her watch and Emmett and Rosalie took over, but I didn't imagine she'd have gone to La Push. I would have to discuss this with the others so we could determine whether or not to let Bella in on that little secret. A big part of me said, 'yes,' but the other part said, 'well, why bother if there wasn't anything to worry about?' So far, no wolves had appeared at our doorstep. Carlisle thought we might be in the clear.

Bella's truck was another unexpected twist. We had decided that after a week or so, we'd start picking her up in the mornings and driving her home. It made sense since someone was going to be at her house anyway. But then she showed up in that…that…monstrosity. Jasper was right in that it was a tank of a truck. She was definitely safe in it, but…

Well it was ugly. And that wasn't the type of vehicle our family drove. Maybe Rosalie could tweak it some.

None of the thoughts I heard from the other kids were all that original, especially when it came to us. I was used to hearing how beautiful we were. We were supposed to be. It's how we theoretically ensnared our human prey. It was easy to block out the thoughts of what these girls wanted to do with me. I was used to it.

I wasn't expecting to hear the male version of those thoughts regarding Bella. I stopped myself countless times from hissing at these idiot children. They couldn't possibly understand the implications of improper behavior toward a vampire's mate, but I was not above giving them the wrong impression regarding mine and Bella's current relationship.

After all, her brother did ask me to keep an eye on her, didn't he? He didn't really specify _how_ I should go about it.

Speaking of her brother, I discovered he hadn't explained our various talents to his sister. I assumed it was merely because he just hadn't gotten around to it yet. I didn't think she could feasibly go around _not_ knowing I could read minds, Alice could see the future and Jasper could change moods – especially since I was positive he had manipulated Bella's nervousness this morning.

I wasn't quite sure how she was going to take that. The thought that maybe Emmett was intentionally keeping that from her never crossed my mind.

"He's not, you know," Alice said falling into step with me as we walked toward the outside cafeteria area. Bella was to meet us there after her last class.

"What are you talking about?"

"_Emmett. He's not intentionally keeping our talents a secret. He just hasn't found the right opening. I called him. He's okay with us explaining it to her." _

Well, that took care of that.

We picked a picnic table away from the other kids, complete with fake food trays. I was just about to get up and go find Bella myself when the thoughts of the other kids outside indicated she had just entered the lunch area. As I looked over, I saw her catch herself before falling. Amazing. The girl could trip over a perfectly flat surface. Her clumsiness was really becoming quite endearing.

"Oh, I didn't get lunch yet," she noted as she sat down. "I thought we were going through the line together."

"Here," we all chorused as we began to take things off our respective trays and put them in front of her.

"Oh no, really, I couldn't."

"Bella, you're doing us a favor," Alice said. "It's really quite disgusting what we would have to do if we ate this."

Bella shrugged and picked up an apple. I certainly hoped she was going to eat more than that. Surely, a human needed more nourishment than that, didn't they? I thought I would need to go back and check my medical textbooks. I think I needed to brush up on human nutrition.

"So, Bella, how are you finding the new school? Have you met anyone you liked?" Alice asked.

"It's alright, I guess," she shrugged again. "Everyone is certainly…helpful."

She was referring to the boys that kept coming up and introducing themselves to her, I was sure of it. The girls seemed to dive right in and start asking about me, which I thought was incredibly rude. How could they not want to get to know the beautiful and fascinating girl here? She had so much to offer a friendship.

On the other hand, the less she hung out with the local kids, the better for us.

"_Here it comes." _Alice popped into my mind, right before Bella turned to me and said, "So, what did you mean before by you were 'listening?'"

"_Well, this will be interesting."_ Jasper thought.

"Well," I began and turned and straddled the bench to face her. "Vampires have enhanced senses. We see better, we smell better, we hear better than humans; we can hear and smell things miles away. Some vampires have additional senses or gifts. We call them talents."

"And yours is even better hearing?"

"No, mine is mind reading."

This was met with silence. Then a confused frown.

"What?"

"I can read minds, Bella. I can hear the thoughts of everyone around me. Everyone, that is, except you."

"You can't hear me?"

"No. You're the only person I've ever come across that I couldn't hear."

"You're not just saying that?" She didn't look like she believed me. I sort of took it as a good sign that she was worried about what I might have heard in her pretty little head.

"Believe me, Bella," Alice laughed. "He's been very frustrated that he can't hear you."

"Why can't you hear me? Is there something _wrong_ with me?"

Jasper laughed. "I'm sorry," he apologized when Bella scowled at him. "Edward tells you he can read minds, but you think there's something wrong with _you_ when he says he can't hear you?"

"Well, I mean, why is that? Am I defective or something?"

"No," I said quickly. "There is nothing wrong with you, Bella, I promise. I guess you're just, I don't know, on a different brain frequency or something."

"I don't know how I feel about all that."

"You'll get used to it," Alice assured gently patting her hand.

"Well, what about you? What do you do?" She asked.

"Alice can see the future and Jasper can influence people's moods," I explained. Her jaw dropped. I wasn't sure which one amazed her more.

"You – you can see -" She began to stutter at Alice but then suddenly switched to Jasper with a glare. "Did you calm me down this morning?" She demanded. He looked surprised…then guilty.

"You were nervous!" He quickly defended himself. "Emmett said that if you seemed too nervous that I should calm you down. He didn't want you freaking out on your first day of school."

"While that's unexpectedly sweet of him," she conceded. "He doesn't call the shots on how I get to feel. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jasper nodded and then he looked at me. _"I like her, dude. I really, really like her."_

"And as for you," Bella said turning to Alice, with nothing like the accusatory tone she had for Jasper. "Did you see me and Emmett coming?"

"No," Alice said honestly. "The visions are subjective. I only see the path people are on while they're on it. One minute I saw Rosalie hunting, the next I saw her bringing Emmett home, _after_ she had made the decision to do so. You're a little harder for me to see, but I can see you. Plus, I'm not always right."

"You say that, but you usually are," Jasper said.

"But I _have_ been wrong," Alice insisted, shaking her head. She turned back to Bella. "They all depend on the things I see as fact, but the future can _always_ change."

"Wow. Those are pretty impressive talents. It makes me feel so…normal."

"That's actually one of the things we like most about you," I smiled at her and she smiled tentatively back.

"_Well said, Edward."_ Alice agreed.

"What can Emmett do?" She suddenly asked.

"It's probably too soon to really tell," Alice explained. "But he's very strong. And he'll keep that strength, which will be very good for us if we ever find ourselves in a fight."

"A fight?" Bella shook her head and frowned. This conversation was going in a dangerous direction. "A fight with whom?"

"Don't worry about that." I jumped in, resting my hand on her arm. I could feel her blood pulse beneath my fingers. It should have been arousing, but it was comforting. "We haven't found ourselves in a situation like that for a very long time. And between my mind reading and Alice seeing what others are going to do before they do it, it makes it extremely hard for someone to take us by surprise."

I said it as much for her benefit as for mine. She saw us as indestructible and we were… depending on the foe. But I figured she already had so much to deal with, I thought the very last thing she needed was to worry about us. Somehow, I suspected she would no matter what assurances I gave her.

"Well," she said letting a breath go and sitting back a bit. "This has been a very enlightening day."

"You're telling me," I agreed.

She laughed and I was happy to hear it. She really didn't laugh enough. I hoped that would change. "Yeah, I guess you probably have learned quite a bit today. What's the most ridiculous thing you heard this morning?"

"It's too embarrassing to repeat."

"Oh, about you, was it? I saw the girls eyeing you up all morning. Most of them asked me if you had a girlfriend."

If I were able to blush, I probably would right now. None of the girls here interested me, of course. They could never be what she was to me. Jessica Stanley seemed to be the most aggressive though. I would be sure to look out for her.

"I'd tread carefully in this conversation if I were you, lest the tables get turned. I've had an inside track to the lecherous minds of these boys all morning."

"They can spin all the fantasies they want to, I can guarantee they will be disappointed."

Good girl. None of these boys were good enough for her, especially considering the reasons they were interested in her. Nobody knew anything about her so they made things up in their heads. She was the most popular girl in her school, of course, in those fantasies. She was certainly the most popular today and that wasn't sitting well with some of the other girls.

This Jessica Stanley girl outwardly seemed eager to befriend Bella, but inwardly, she was seething at all the attention Bella was getting, especially from myself and some popular jock named Mike Newton. And when she wasn't seething, she was trying to figure out how to use Bella's temporary popularity to her advantage. Little did Jessica know, nor care, that Bella had no desire to be popular, envied, talked about, fantasized about or the subject of insecure, teenage male competition. There was a homecoming dance coming up in October and so far three different boys were planning on asking Bella as their date.

However did Emmett keep up with this before?

The bell rang and Alice and Jasper split off for their next class while Bella and I headed to Biology. We got a table to ourselves, and as such, were assigned to each other as lab partners, much to the frustration of nearly every other kid in the room.

I chuckled to myself and looked down at the syllabus outlining the labs for the year.

"What?" Bella asked, amused by my sudden mirth.

"Nothing," I just shook my head. "For the first time in a very long while, Bella, I'm actually looking forward to a new school year."

She shook her head, rolled her eyes and muttered, "Well, that makes one of us."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Not mine; no copyright infringement intended.**

**Much love to Felicity Deadwood and Kzinti_Killer for your invaluable input.**

**I've got a little momentum right now, so we'll see how long it lasts…**

**10.**

**~Emmett~**

I stepped out onto the front porch as I heard a rather loud vehicle approaching the house. I could smell my sister getting closer. I hadn't seen her in about a week. Rosalie had been spending a lot of time showing me the Pacific Northwest territory and took me up to Alaska to introduce to me to the Denali clan.

Let me tell you, those girls are pretty hot. It was still strange to me though to see three gorgeous women and not feel inclined to hit on them. I was so satisfied and content with Rosalie that no other woman held an appeal for me. In any way at all. This mate thing was very intriguing.

Rosalie was also physically insatiable too and I was A-okay with that.

A dilapidated vintage red truck was following Edward's Volvo. After Edward pulled off into the garage, I could see my sister behind the wheel of the truck. What in the holy hell was she driving and why? She pulled up to the front of the house and the engine shut off with a shudder and a spurt. What did she intend to do with this tin can?

Bella waved enthusiastically from the cab of the truck. I smiled back. Alright, I admit it, I was happy to see the little brat.

She swung out of the truck and came running up to me on the porch. The closer she got, the stronger the inferno in my throat became. I was so stunned by the violence that ripped through me that I was quite literally frozen to my spot.

I threw my hand up with a warning growl to stop her when I realized she was going to hug me. I moved to the opposite end of the porch and began to pace. Every fiber of my being wanted to kill her. Well, _almost_ every fiber of my being. She'd be dead already if all of me wanted to kill her.

It was plain from her face that she was stunned and a bit hurt by my reaction.

"Emmett-" She began and took a step toward me.

"Stay where you are," I ordered as I paced.

Edward made it to the porch first. He looked a little frantic. Well, wasn't this an interesting role reversal? Usually it was me watching him closely. _"Keep her over there. I shouldn't have gone so long without seeing her." _He stood in front of her, never taking his eyes off me.

"Jasper," Alice said appearing on the porch with my new brothers. "Why don't you take Emmett hunting for a bit? Don't go far; just enough to take the edge off."

I jumped over the porch railing and looked back up at Bella. "Don't go anywhere, okay? I won't be long."

She nodded, still speechless and I followed Jasper into the woods. We ran for a while. I wanted to put some distance between me and my sister so my head could clear. The last thing I wanted was to taste blood, even if it was animal blood, and smell my sister. I think that would be a very bad combination.

It might have been easier had I been able to take my guard shifts inside the house, but with Charlie in there, I couldn't chance it. Maybe we could get a hold of his work schedule and make it so I took the shift when he was working at night. Obviously, I needed to see her more than once a week.

And if I was being honest with myself, it was more than just so that the urge to kill her wouldn't be so strong. I did miss her. I missed talking to her. I missed making fun of her. And I missed the little snatches of humanity I got to keep with her. I would never admit it to her, but I do need my sister. She was my family. Even though I had this new larger family, she was my only link to my human life and my human memories. I could embrace my new life, but I also wasn't ready to let go of the memories of my mother yet either. It made me feel like I lost her all over again. Being around Bella kept those fresher than the rest of my human memories.

I saw an elk and went for the easy kill. I preferred bear, but I didn't want Bella to sit there and feel guilty for too long. She was probably pretty upset.

On the one hand, it was good for her to see me like that. It was good for her to be reminded that not all of us were friendly. Not all of us could control the urge to kill her. We weren't all safe for her. On the other hand, she had a right to feel safe around her brother and I didn't like that for one iota of a second, she may not have. What if nobody else was around? I didn't want to think about it. I obviously needed to take more precautions and so I would. It was as simple as that.

"You really are a freak, dude," Jasper said as I dropped my deer.

"_Me_?" I replied. "You're the mood changer."

I liked Jasper. He told me his back story and that guy was a bad ass if there ever was one. I was so impressed with the story of his change and how he lived for the first hundred years in his second life that I couldn't even muster the desire to make fun of him for going straight because he "felt bad about it." Newborn strength or not, I was pretty sure Jasper could probably still kick my ass.

"You're a freak of a nature," he continued. "Putting aside the fact that nature never intended to create vampires, I've never met a vampire that could so easily overcome the call of human blood."

"It's not easy."

"No, but it's clearly possible. It's giving me a new perspective on life."

"Very touching. You don't want a hug now or anything, do you?"

"You hug me, bro, and I will rip your arms off."

"You know, you almost make it sound like you'd feel better if I did kill her." We started back toward the house and I kept an eye out for anything else to eat on our way. Better to be safe than sorry.

"I sort of would."

I stopped and looked at him. "You asshole."

"No, I just meant I would _understand_ that more is all," he replied. "I don't actually want you to kill her. I like her. Alice likes her. And Alice says she'll mean a lot to all of us, so that includes me. Besides, she reminds me of one of my sisters growing up. And I hadn't thought of Bethany since I was changed. I'm not entirely ready to let that go again."

Okay, well I had to give him that, since Bella helped me remember our mother, but I still thought he needed to be a little more diplomatic in how he worded stuff. We continued on back toward home.

"Did you ever go back and check on your family?"

"Maria wouldn't allow it, even if I wanted to. No, I figured out pretty quickly I would never be safe for them. They assumed I died in the war and for all intents and purposes, I did. I would have liked to have seen my sisters get married, especially Bethany. She was very sweet."

"You never checked newspaper records or anything? I mean, you really weren't curious?"

"No. That is part of my point, Emmett, none of us did. Well, Edward lost all his family to the Spanish Influenza and Alice doesn't remember anything at all about her human life, she doesn't even know who turned her, but Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, they never checked. Rosalie is the only one who came close by slaughtering the pigs that killed her, but she never checked for her family. You're different. You refused to be parted from your family and the fact that you can still keep your sister in your life is pretty amazing."

"Listen, she may be a typically annoying little sister, but that doesn't mean she needs to be alone in the world, does it? She doesn't deserve that."

He laughed. "I'm an empath; just admit you love her, Emmett, I can tell anyway."

"And yet still _I'm_ the freak."

Empath or not, I wasn't going to talk about my feelings with another dude. That was just… against the code.

I found a deer on our way back and topped off…just in case. When we got back to the house, Bella was sitting on the front steps, hands clasped, looking anxiously toward the woods. I saw her long before she saw me. Edward was sitting next to her. I figured it would have been Esme or Alice keeping her company, but it was Edward. I had to admit, I was pretty impressed with how quickly he adjusted to having her around. I almost thought he was a lost cause, but that dude rallied. He was okay.

He played the piano too and he was really fucking good at it, not that I would tell him or anything, but he was. He smirked when he saw me. Yeah, for a second there I forgot he could read minds.

I approached the house slowly so Bella could see me. She smiled and stood up but I still kept my distance. I was going to subscribe to Edward's theory for now, get adjusted to her outside first before getting any closer.

"So," I said walking around the truck and kicking at the tire, the whole truck moved. Whoops. "What's the story with this?"

"It's my truck!" I could still see the disappointment in her face that I wasn't coming any closer, but she hid it well, or she tried to.

"_Your_ truck?"

"Uncle Charlie got me money from our trust and we bought it off a friend of his. Isn't it great?"

"You bought this?" I asked. She nodded. "On purpose?"

"Emmett!"

"Bella it's…" I waved my hand at the rusty old heap. "I mean, you didn't want anything from, you know, this century?"

"Don't be hating on my truck," she said indignantly. "I think it's great. This thing is like a tank. It'll hold up against anything. It's very safe."

"If it continues to run, sure, maybe."

"It'll run. Jacob just rebuilt the engine."

"Jacob? Who the hell is Jacob?"

"Jacob Black," Bella said. "His father is Uncle Charlie's best friend."

"You bought this truck from Jacob Black?" Jasper asked. "You didn't say that."

"You don't actually know him?" Bella asked. The Cullens had told me the story about the wolves on the reservation. I knew that the tribe chief's last name was Black. So I knew Bella associating with his son or grandson was not welcomed news.

"We know his grandfather, sort of, from the last time we lived here," Edward explained quietly.

"Oh, well, Jacob is a pretty good mechanic and he fixed everything up. It runs great." Bella continued. She didn't notice the tension in Jasper and Edward, but I did. "I think it's got character."

"I think it's a piece of shit," I said bluntly.

"Well, _you're_ not the one driving it, are you?"

"I think that's a big 10-4."

I glanced over at the garage where inside there was parked a Mercedes, a Volvo, a BMW and, much to my extreme jealousy, an Aston Martin that Edward kept under lock and key. The only one that was allowed to touch it other than Edward was Rosalie and that was only when she worked on it. Everything in there was fast, flashy and less than five years old. Rosalie and I started poking around for something for me. I didn't need anything slick and racy, but I did want something that kicked ass.

Rosalie must have heard our conversation from the garage because she came over and joined us.

"What is this doing here?" Rosalie looked at the truck in disgust.

"It's _mine_," Bella said between her teeth.

"What are you going to do with it?"

"_Drive_ it."

Rosalie's eyes widened as she looked back at the hunk of junk in front of us. This vehicle appealed neither to her sense of vanity or automotive interest.

"Oh, well…" she trailed off, clearly not finding anything nice to say about it.

"It's in excellent shape," Bella said, lifting her chin. "The engine was just rebuilt."

Rosalie arched an eyebrow at my sister. Instead of responding, she merely went over to the driver's side, opened the door and started the truck up. The engine literally came to life with a roar. Rose threw an indulgent look over at Bella as she moved to pop the hood.

"Wait," I said, waving my hands and moving to her side. "You're not going to convince her to get rid of this hunk of crap?"

"Well, I wouldn't be caught dead in it," she replied. Ha ha. "But if she's going to drive it, I'll check it over. It certainly doesn't need to be this loud. The little wonder mechanic obviously didn't know how to fix that."

"That would be good," Bella said moving to Rosalie's other side. "I was going to ask if you could make it quieter. I mean, everyone in the parking lot looked at me when I pulled in."

"It wasn't entirely because of your truck, Bella," Edward smiled.

He moved to her other side and the four of us peered under the hood. Jasper peeled away from us, I assumed to go find Alice. I squinted my eyes at Edward over the rattle of the engine. "_You don't have anything else you could be doing right now?" _He shrugged in response and stayed put. "_I knew you'd hit it off with her. You're just as nerdy as she is. You're a perfect match. And by match I mean you'd make an excellent _friend." Edward chuckled and looked back at the engine.

"What's so funny?" Bella asked looking at Edward.

"Nothing," he said, but didn't lose his smile.

"So, Rosalie, what do you think?" Bella asked turning back to where Rose was bent over the engine fiddling around.

"Well," she said. "It's not a complete lost cause – under here anyway – but it still needs some work. I'm going to have to do some digging on where I can get parts for it. I doubt they even make parts for it anymore, which is probably why the engine was just rebuilt. It'll be an… interesting project."

"Thank you, Rosalie," Bella smiled. "I really appreciate it. I can pay for the parts."

Rosalie laughed, then got behind the wheel. "Just leave it with me for now." I gaped at Rosalie as she put the truck into gear and drove it over to the garage.

What a fucking traitor! I figured she'd at least be on my side.

I looked over at Bella and dropped my hands to my hips. "You really like that thing?"

"It just needs love," she smiled softly. That pretty much ended that argument. Once Bella's heart was set on something, there was no budging her.

"It's a good thing you've got a LOT of love in you," I shook my head and finally gave her the hug she had been waiting for. She squeezed me tight - or tight for her - put her head on my shoulder and sighed. I dropped my face to the crook of her neck and breathed in deep, letting the burn roll down my throat. Strange, I actually missed that feeling.

"I'll just go inside," Edward said. "I can drive you home later, Bella."

"Oh, she's not going to be finished today?" Bella asked pulling back and looking at me.

"She doesn't seem to think so," Edward chuckled and then turned toward the house and disappeared inside.

"How am I going to get to school tomorrow?"

"They'll probably pick you up," I shrugged. We walked back to the front steps and sat down. "That was the plan anyway. We figured after a week or so it wouldn't be weird for you to start getting rides from friends and they were just going to pick you up and drop you off. Then you brought that…thing."

"I like it. It suits me."

"It'll probably have the most bitchin' stereo of any car in the school lot, other than Edward's."

"That's not that important to me," she laughed.

"It will be if you think I'm ever riding with you in that thing."

"Alright, enough about my truck. How have you been? Have you settled in alright?"

"Isn't that supposed to be _my_ question?"

"I'll answer it next."

"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged. "It's a nice area. I can see why Charlie likes it and mom hated it. Rosalie has been taking me all over so I can get familiar with it. There's another coven they know up in Alaska, so she took me up there to meet them."

"You went to _Alaska_?"

"Yeah."

"You went to Alaska and back in a _week_?"

"I don't sleep, Bells, we can drive through the night."

"Oh, yeah." She still sounded a little unsure about that.

"Anyway, this house is pretty awesome. Mine and Rose's room -"

"You're staying in the same _room_?"

"What are you, my mother? Yes."

"Like, sharing a bed?"

"Well, not that we use it for sleeping, but yeah."

Her eyes widened, her face reddened and her mouth dropped open. Watching her gape like a fish was totally worth the massive flare up that just shot through me when she flushed.

Bella's face was an open book. I watched all the thoughts running through her head cross her face. In the end, she decided not to voice any of them. I was actually kind of disappointed by that.

"Anyway, the bedrooms have huge sliding doors in them so we can just go in and out that way. Rose and I keep ours open because it really opens it up and makes you feel like you're part of the forest. It's cool."

She nodded. "That sounds great."

I think she was still stuck on the sharing a room thing. We had the conversation about me and Rosalie before though. She still thought I'd have my own room? I tried to remember that my lifestyle had switched gears very quickly and that it would take her a while to catch up, but was she really that much of a prude? That was…well, comforting actually, but in reality, I was going to have to face the fact that someday someone was going to catch her eye. Deny it though I did, I really didn't expect her to become a nun. I did figure one day she'd get married.

Which brought about a whole different set of problems. Exposing ourselves to my sister was one thing, but what if she got married? If she got serious about some guy, realistically speaking, what was I going to do? Letting some dude in on the big secret was not possible. If I wasn't telling Charlie, I wasn't telling anyone else. She was a special circumstance. On the other hand, I was such a big part of her life, what could she do about it? Could I really ask her to look the guy she loved in the face and _lie_?

I was so busy thinking about her safety that not for one second did I think about how associating with a bunch of vampires would affect the rest of her life. She had to lie to her friends, when she made them, our uncle and in the future, the guy she fell in love with, maybe even her kids. Could I really ask her to do that?

Yes, I could. I could ask her and what's worse is I probably _would_ ask her. But the real crime here was that Bella is very smart. If she hadn't realized all those obstacles already, she would, and she would make marriage and relationships out of the question for herself. She'd do that without a word about it from me because the sun rose and set on _me_ and always had. She'd give up love before she gave up her brother.

Now most of me thought that was just fine. I would be perfectly happy with my sister going through life as a virgin. I really could be okay with being the most important guy in her life. But the part of me that loved her, that refused to go through life without her, could never accept those terms. The whole point of getting her away from Lou and out here to Charlie was so that she had a shot at a normal life.

Thank God all that love stuff wasn't something I had to deal with now.

Piano music began drifting out of the open window. Edward had been playing this particular tune a lot. Esme said it was new, that he just wrote it. It sounded awfully complex for being such a new song, but Esme said Edward was very talented. She said this sounded like a lullaby. I guess it did.

"That piano sounds real," Bella said looking back toward the house.

"It is. It's your nerdy new BFF," I grumbled.

"What?"

"Edward," I said. "He's playing it."

"That's _him_?" she gaped.

"No, it's freaking Liberace." Wait a minute, did I sound jealous? No. No, that wasn't jealousy. But the closer she got to the open window, the more annoyed I became. Clearly, I was not ready to come to terms with the fact that there might be a guy she thought was cooler than me.

Well, no. No, there would never be a guy she thought was cooler than me, especially nerdy Edward – who actually wasn't _that_ bad.

I looked up at her as she stood there and looked through the living room window into the house and I'm sure right at Edward at the piano in the living room. She stayed there and listened like she was in some sort of trance.

Fuck.

I let out the breath I had been holding since Jasper and I got back and stood up.

"C'mon, Bells," I said resigned. "Why don't I show you the house?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Not mine; no copyright infringement intended.**

**It's a dark, dank and dreary day here, so its perfect for cozying up with the laptop! Another long one for you!**

**As always, thanks to my wonderful betas for their invaluable input, grammar correction and encouragement!**

**~Edward~**

I admit to being a little bit evil. I was irked that Emmett didn't want me outside with him and his sister; that he felt entitled to speak with her outside of my presence. Granted, Emmett didn't know yet that his sister was my mate, but if he did – _when_ he did – could I reasonably expect him to change his behavior?

Up until now, he was the only boy in her life and he was coming to the conclusion that realistically speaking, things were not going to remain that way. When he started to get all maudlin about Bella falling in love, I got angry. Truth be told, yes, of course I was eavesdropping from the living room. And so when he started thinking about Bella getting married, I began to pace anxiously.

Of course, I only wanted her happiness. And if it was to be that her happiness was with someone else, I would support that. I would never be far away and ever ready to rip the man to pieces if he so much as caused one tear from her, but I would support her nonetheless.

Or I would appear to anyway.

However, when Emmett started thinking about being the only boy in her life, I got annoyed and I decided to play a little dirty. Of course, I was the only one that knew I was playing dirty… or _almost_ the only one.

"_Edward, you cheater."_ Alice popped into my head as I began to play. She was in the kitchen with Esme and Jasper as Esme went through the pantry and refrigerator searching for a suitable after school snack for Bella. She was happy to have her here and wanted her to feel at home.

I was playing a song I recently wrote with Bella in mind. It had become Esme's new favorite, despite the fact that Esme had her own song. This one was more like a lullaby. Esme liked it because it was tender and haunting and because, of course, it was written for Bella. She was convinced she could pick out the part of the song where we fall in love. Since only one of us was in love at the moment, I disputed her theory.

Regardless, Esme was just tickled pink that I was in love now, too. It didn't matter that for the time being, Bella didn't return my love. Esme knew of Alice's vision that someday Bella would love me too, and so that made everything a done deal.

Of course, Alice has been wrong before.

"_I'm not this time."_

I rolled my eyes.

I heard the conversation outside stop as Bella heard me playing. I grinned smugly. She walked along the porch, stopped at the window and stood watching me play. I looked up at her, but it would have been too fast for her to have noticed. I liked that she was hearing this song, even if she didn't know it was for her. I liked that she got to see me in a normal environment. I hoped I appeared less surreal.

Emmett brought her inside and though she was looking all around the living room, taking it all in, she kept looking back over at me. I smiled at her.

Esme came flying out of the kitchen. "Bella! It's so good to see you again! I'm so glad you're here."

Bella hugged Esme back. It wasn't a polite hug either. She genuinely hugged her like she was hugging a mother she hadn't seen in a while. Emmett noticed it too and with that resolved never to allow us to be parted from her for any significant amount of time, despite any future plans Bella may or may not have to get married. Esme had quite seamlessly stepped into the role of mother to Bella and Emmett wasn't willing to allow Bella to go through that kind of loss again.

Now I felt guilty for interrupting his time with his sister on the porch.

Well, almost guilty.

"Why don't you come on into the kitchen, Bella," Esme said, wrapping her arm around Bella's shoulders and leading her out of the room. "I was just about to fix you a snack."

"Oh, I don't want to be an inconvenience," I heard Bella's voice drift back.

"Don't be silly," Esme replied. "You could never be an inconvenience."

I listened as Bella caught Esme up on her week apart from us over apple slices. I watched in the various minds of my family as Emmett went to a pantry, pulled out a jar of peanut butter and brought it back to where Bella sat.

"Oh," Esme said. "I didn't realize they went together."

"They don't," Emmett said, leaning down on his forearms on the kitchen island. "It was disgusting when I was human and it's disgusting now."

"Thanks, Em," Bella smiled. She twisted off the top and dug out a huge pile of peanut butter on her apple slice. "I didn't want to ask." She smiled shyly before putting the apple in her mouth.

In case you were wondering, yes, all the vampires present were thoroughly grossed out.

"Okay…well…now that I know, I'll make sure we always have some on hand for you then," Esme smiled. _"Thank God she knows we don't eat human food. I don't like the idea of fake eating that."_

"I heard you got a new car, Bella," Esme smiled. _"Quite literally, heard it."_

"I did! Uncle Charlie and I went and got it. It's this ancient old truck, with this big bubble cab. It's like right out of a Norman Rockwell painting."

"It sounds like you're very pleased with it."

"Well, yeah. I mean, it just needs to get me from point A to point B, right? Rosalie is outside looking at it now."

"She'll make sure everything's alright with it."

"The engine was recently rebuilt. I hope it doesn't need too much more work. One of the reasons Uncle Charlie and I liked it was because it would likely not need a lot of maintenance. I don't have a lot of money to toss around on a car." It will never need maintenance as long as Rosalie is around. I saw a lot of problems with that truck miraculously fixed in the middle of the night.

"Rosalie will take care of it," Esme smiled. "Would you like to see the rest of the house?"

"Sure," Bella stood up and she, Esme and Emmett moved out of the kitchen. "This house is beautiful. It's so light and open."

"Bella was probably afraid it had coffins, dungeons and moats," Emmett snickered.

"No, I wasn't. The house in New Hampshire wasn't anything like that," Bella sneered back.

Esme laughed indulgently at them. "Decorating is a hobby of mine," she explained. "Each house has a different personality and I like finding that. This house has an extra room upstairs that I am working on for you, Bella."

"For me?" She sounded surprised.

"In case you ever need it," Esme shrugged. "You are always welcome here. This house is your home too." I could guarantee that the bedroom here would be better furnished and outfitted than the one at her current home.

"Wow, that's…thanks."

I continued to play and listen as they moved from room to room. Esme saved Carlisle's office for last. Bella was stunned by the extent of Carlisle's library.

"I knew you'd love it," Emmett said. "It's like Nerd-Disney."

"Even you can't ruin this for me," Bella smiled at her brother.

Bella started to climb one of the rolling ladders and stumbled about half way up. My fingers faltered on the piano keys, but Emmett was by her side like lightening. He wrapped an arm around her waist and plucked her to safety.

"Stay away from the ladders," he ordered.

"I just wanted to see what was in here."

"I'll make you an alphabetized inventory tonight. You can have your own little, like, Dewey decimal…thing."

She smiled at him and shook her head.

"You're welcome to borrow anything you'd like, Bella," Esme smiled. "Why don't we head back downstairs? Emmett, you can get started on that inventory."

"What?" he replied, but Esme just gave him 'her look' and he bit off any protest he might have made. I smiled as I realized Esme was playing a little for Team Edward there. She thought it would be nice to have Bella come downstairs and talk to me about my music.

When they got back down to the living room, Esme made herself scarce and it was just Bella and I. I smiled when she came into the room and continued to play.

"That sounds great," she smiled lightly and gestured to the piano.

"Thank you," I replied. "Come on over."

She approached slowly and I wished for the hundredth time since I met her that I could read her thoughts. "You're…really amazing," she said as she leaned her forearms on the top of my piano. I liked the way she looked when she did that. She belonged there. She belonged here with us.

"I've had a lot of time to become so," I replied and drew the lullaby to a close. "Do you have any requests?"

"Is it too obvious of a question to ask what you know?"

"I'm sure I'll know whatever you ask," I replied. Like I said, I had a LOT of time to practice.

"Debussy?"

Okay, I _really_ wasn't expecting that. I thought she'd ask for some Beethoven or Mozart.

"You know Debussy?" I couldn't help but gape. But I mean, really, Debussy was my favorite. She really was my mate.

"Not real well, but Clare de Lune was my mother's favorite," she said it softly and dropped her gaze to her hands on the piano.

"It's my favorite too," I said and began to play. She closed her eyes for a few moments and when she opened them again, they shone with tears. Then she sat down on the piano bench next to me, silently at first, still trying to hold the tears at bay.

"I really miss her sometimes," she whispered and wiped the tears that fell down her cheeks away. She laughed a little before she continued, "She was really flighty and was always coming up with new hobbies. The school she was teaching at got a new piano and so she took the old one and decided she was going to take lessons so she could learn to play this song, only she wasn't very good and couldn't even master London Bridge is Falling Down."

"She sounds like she was quite a lady," I smiled.

"She was."

She closed her eyes again, but this time rested her head on my shoulder. She seemed content there and I certainly was in no hurry to have her move, so I started the song again. _"Yeah, you're alright."_ Emmett had wandered out to the top of the stairs, but stayed where he was. _"Me, I can't tell this song apart from any of the others, but this is the kind of thing Bella knows. But you're alright with her. I won't be happy if you fuck with her head though." _

I heard him disappear back into the library and I was more than a little confused. I didn't get it. Was that consent? I don't think that's what that was. But it kind of sounded like it was. In the end, it did matter whether or not I had Emmett's consent. First of all, that's how I was raised. In my time, I would have gotten permission from the male head of the family _before_ I started courting her. Secondly, he obviously meant the world to Bella, and I didn't want to cause her any distress by being at odds with her brother.

All that aside, I _liked_ Emmett. He was fun and laid back. He certainly breathed new life into our family. Mine and Rosalie's personalities clashed and we were frequently at odds. It sucked. Neither one of us was to blame, it's just the way we were, but I certainly didn't want that relationship with _two_ people.

When the song ended for the second time, I dropped my hands to my lap and waited for some kind of direction from Bella, but there was nothing.

"Hey," I said with a very gentle shrug of my shoulder. "You didn't go to sleep over there, did you?" I knew very well that she hadn't.

"No," she said softly. "Thank you, Edward."

"Anytime," I replied. And I meant it. If she wanted to sit here all day and have me play just that song over and over, I would. It'd make me crazy, but I'd do it if it brought her comfort.

"I wish I had it for my iPod," she sighed picking up her head. "Well, it wouldn't really matter anyway since its dead and I have no charger, plus, I don't have a computer yet to download anything onto it if I wanted to. Charlie and I haven't decided yet which one to buy. I don't really need one."

"I have a charger you can take with you," I said.

"Oh, you do? An extra one?"

I nodded. "And you can download anything of mine if you want. I've got Debussy."

"Really?" The smile crept slowly across her face and just about reached her eyes.

"Absolutely."

"Okay, thanks. I'll bring my iPod to school tomorrow."

"I'll get you the charger and then I'll bring you home."

"Thanks," she said. "I guess on the way you can help me figure out what to tell Charlie about why I don't have my truck."

"Oh, I suppose that would be a problem, huh?" I said. "We'll think of something."

I wasn't really worried. We had become masters of lying. I felt bad for making Bella lie so much as it didn't really seem to agree with her, but like Emmett said earlier, it couldn't be helped. If we were to remain in contact with her, she'd have to lie. She seemed to think of it as a necessary evil. Little did she know that would just be one of many to come.

"Why don't I take you home now?" I suggested lightly.

"Yeah, I guess I should probably head back," she sighed standing up. "Let me just say goodbye to Emmett."

However, when she turned around, he was there behind her.

"You're leaving already?"

"I gotta make dinner and get settled for the night," she said. "Am I going to see you this week?"

"Yeah, I'll figure it out. Find out when Charlie's overnight is, and I'll come that night."

Bella's smile lit up her whole face. I found myself jealous that it wasn't put there by the thought of spending the night with _me_. But she was happy and that made me happy.

"I'll check again, but I think it's Friday. And I know he's working this weekend."

"Okay, well, call me when you know."

"Bye." She threw her arms around his neck and held on tight while he let her. But it was, of course, him who pulled away first.

"See ya," Emmett said quickly and then disappeared back upstairs.

Bella looked after him for a moment, before turning back to me. "My bag's in my truck still."

"I'll get it," I nodded, as Esme emerged from the kitchen to say goodbye.

I left Bella to it and went out to the garage, where Rosalie had the truck's hood up. She said nothing as I pulled Bella's bag from the cab. She was intent on checking every inch of it over before Bella drove it again. It wasn't that she had any real concern for Bella's well-being, but Emmett did, and so she would make sure it was safe for his sister. And for Rosalie, that was pretty sweet.

Instead of pulling my car around though, I realized it was my shift to stand guard again. It seemed kind of ridiculous to drive her back to Charlie's, then drive back here, only to run back again. I wondered…

"All set?" She asked as she approached me outside.

"How'd you like to travel home a different way?" I found myself asking.

"I don't understand."

"Well, I could drive you. Or I could take you the way we normally travel over there."

"What way is that?"

"Through the woods."

"Through the woods?" She asked incredulously. "You want me to hike through the woods all the way home? Have you met me, Edward? Do you want me to break my leg? And it's like 20 miles."

"Don't be absurd, Bella," I scoffed. I moved to her and fed her arms through her backpack straps, then made sure it was on her back good and snug. "_You're_ not hiking anywhere."

I stepped to her and before she realized what was happening, I draped her over my back.

"Edward," she said unsure. "Um, I was just kidding, mostly. I can actually walk, although why you would want to -"

"Hold on," I warned.

"What?"

"Tight."

Before she could ask another question, I shot off into the forest. She shrieked. A lot. If it was possible to break my eardrum, she would have. She squealed and hollered for the first full minute of the run. Then she pressed her face into my neck and whimpered. She probably didn't like roller coasters either.

While she quite clearly was absolutely terrified, I felt exhilarated. I loved to run, but running with her, even though she screamed in terror, was nothing short of amazing. She'd get used to this. I hoped. I was sure that Emmett would likewise do this with her too, though he wasn't as fast as me. Nobody was as fast as me, and that made me feel even better.

We were at her house in five minutes. I went to the back so the neighbors wouldn't see our odd arrival. When I stopped at the back steps, I thought she'd immediately climb off, but she seemed frozen where she was. Her breath came in quick pants and she clung to me still.

"Bella, we're here."

"Am I dead?" she squeaked.

"No," I laughed. "You're home. Open your eyes."

I looked back and watched as she opened one eye and then the other. "How did we get here so fast?"

"I ran," I stated the obvious; or obvious to me anyway. "You can get down now."

"Uh-huh," she squeaked.

We waited there another minute.

"Need help?"

"Uh-huh."

I chuckled lightly, then reached back and gently extricated her from my back. I led her slowly to the steps where she immediately sat down and then put her head between her knees.

"I honestly didn't think you'd be that scared," I cringed a bit. What if she didn't want to do that again? That wouldn't be good at all.

"A brief explanation of the experience beforehand wouldn't have been uncalled for." She looked up at me with a glare. Yikes. She was quite ticked off there.

"What were you so scared of?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe _running into a tree!_"

"Bella, I would _never_ run into a tree, especially while carrying you. That's how we travel the forest. It's much more efficient than driving."

"Let's get this straight right now," she said evenly, still giving me the death glare. "I absolutely, positively DO NOT want to travel that way anymore than is absolutely, positively necessary. Do you understand?"

I nodded in response.

"I will only authorize such mode of transportation if my very life is on the line, got it?"

"Sure," I nodded again, even though I was just placating her now. She would see that running was a much more time saving method to travel than driving all that way.

"I mean it."

"I can see that."

"You tell that to Emmett, too."

"Absolutely," I assured her.

"I think I might be able to stand." She took a deep breath and slowly rose to her feet. She held out a hand to the railing and steadied herself. I could hear her heart rate slowing down and we began to walk around to the front of the house. When she started to walk up the stairs, she stopped and suddenly turned to face me.

"Who's turn is it?" She asked.

"Turn for what?"

"To watch my house."

"Oh, um, mine actually."

"Were you planning on staying outside the whole time?" She asked. No, no I was not. But I wasn't going to tell her that.

"That's the way it's been done so far." …by the others…

"Well, you can come in…if you want."

"Okay," I agreed immediately.

"Really?"

"Bella, I'd much rather be inside than outside."

"Oh. Okay, good."

She reached under the eve, pulled out the key, unlocked the door and put it back. We stepped inside the house and I followed her back to the kitchen. She dropped her backpack on the kitchen table and pulled open the refrigerator door and began pulling various food items out.

"Uncle Charlie isn't going to be home until like 10 o'clock. It's kind of lonely all by myself. Sometimes I don't really mind being alone, but when you're used to a brother who could care less about your privacy, it's kind of a jolt when it's gone."

"How do you feel about what happened to Emmett?" The words were out before I could think about it. She straightened up and turned to me slowly. I couldn't read her. I wasn't sure if she was going snap at me or maybe start to cry. But she did neither.

"Well, it's kind of tough to say," she began. She took the lid off a bowl and put it into the microwave. I watched as she expertly programmed it. Esme would be so jealous. "It certainly wouldn't have happened if we never moved to New Hampshire. But I'm glad I didn't lose him and if Rosalie hadn't found him, I wouldn't know any of you. I don't like that he had to get hurt for it though. But there's not much point in thinking about it, is there? It is what it is."

Her viewpoint on the subject was interesting. She used the word 'hurt,' but that's not what happened to him at all. Carlisle would never considering changing anyone who was merely 'hurt.' Everyone had to be dying; there had to be no other choice. This didn't really seem like the time to bring that up though, so I let it go.

She pulled the bowl out of the microwave, then walked over to the table, sat down and began to poke at her food.

"Can I ask you a question now?"

"It seems only fair."

"Why are his eyes red and yours aren't? He said it wouldn't last, but he never really explained it."

I took a moment to think of my wording this time. I wanted to be very careful. "When a vampire's eyes are black, it means they need to feed. When you see that, Bella, you are to be very careful; no matter who it is. When a vampire feeds on human blood, it turns their eyes red. Emmett's are red because he still has _his_ human blood inside. The more he feeds on animals, the more they will change and eventually they will be brown like ours."

"They looked kind of orange today," she said. She was very astute. I liked that she paid attention to our eye color, now that she knew what it meant, it would, hopefully, keep her cautious.

"They're changing," I assured her. "It takes some time."

"Could you ever feed on a human and _not_ drain them?"

"No."

"Then how do vampires get changed? How does that work?"

"Let's leave that lesson for another time," I replied.

"Am I not allowed to know it or something?" She challenged. She finished her dinner and returned her bowl to the sink, then spun around to me. She really was feisty.

"Technically speaking, Bella, you aren't allowed to know _any_ of it at all," I replied. "But, it's not that. Sometimes knowledge isn't it a good thing. Sometimes it causes pain and I don't want to be the one to cause you more pain, not tonight."

She nodded in response. It made me think at the very least she understood my position on the issue. "Okay. Got that charger?" She switched gears, but I was willing to bet the subject was not dropped for long.

"Absolutely," I said, pulling it out of my pocket.

"Wanna see my room?"

Oh, I've already seen it, my love.

"Sure."

I followed her up the stairs. I briefly wondered what Emmett would think if he knew his sister invited me into her room. It was exactly as I knew it would be.

"You need stuff," I noted.

"It's just a place to sleep," she shrugged.

"But it's _your_ place to sleep, Bella," I replied. "We can help you if you let us."

"And how would I explain that to Charlie?"

"We could say Emmett went to your storage unit. He does plan on doing that."

"I can wait," she said and sat down on the bed.

I wasn't really sure what I should do now that I was actually in here with her. I wanted to be in here with her, but never really thought of what I would do once I was. I sat down on the rocking chair in the corner of the room.

"Bella," I said and waited for her to meet my eyes. "We're going to fuss over you. Count on it. Get used to it."

"You guys, you don't understand me. I don't _need_ all that stuff. I don't need another bedroom. I don't need fancy stuff. I'm okay."

"You're wrong. I do understand you, Bella. You're selfless. Being the center of attention bothers you. I saw the way you were hiding behind us at school. And that's okay. I'm happy to step in front of you if want to be left alone. But, _I'm_ not going to leave you alone, and my family's not going to leave you alone, and your brother has made his position on leaving you alone quite plain. But there's no shame in having something you don't need to survive just because it makes things a little easier for you. I think you've earned having things a little easier for a while."

Before she could answer that, I heard Charlie's cruiser pull up and my head snapped to the window.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Charlie's home," I replied. I stood up and moved toward the closet. "He's worried. He's coming up here." I disappeared into the closet just before Charlie gave a quick knock on the bedroom door before opening it. I kept the closet door open a crack so that I could see Bella where she sat on the bed.

"Hey Bells, I wasn't sure you were home. Where's your truck?"

Whoops. We forgot to work that out. Time to see what Bella's made of.

"Oh, well, I went out after school with Edward -"

"Edward? Edward who?"

"Edward Cullen." This wasn't starting out well.

"I don't know an Edward Cullen. Wait. Is he in any relation to that new doctor at the hospital?"

"Yes! Carlisle – I mean, Dr. Cullen is Edward's adopted father. He and Es – Mrs. Cullen – adopted Edward, Alice, Jasper and oh, Rosalie too, but she's too old for high school; anyway, I met them at orientation and they're new too, they moved down here from, I think, I don't know, Alaska maybe? I'm not sure. Anyway, since they're new and I'm new, we sat together. It's nice, you know, because I don't know anyone and neither do they, well, they know each other, but now I know them."

Wow, she really stunk at lying.

"Okay, well, I'm glad you made some friends, Bells," said Charlie. "But that still doesn't explain where your truck is."

"Oh, it's, uh, at school. We went – me and Edward and Alice and Jasper – went out after school for pizza and it got kind of late, so Edward just drove me home. And they'll pick me up in the morning and I can get my truck back."

So now we had to get Bella's truck to the school tonight to make her story plausible.

"How was the first day?"

"Okay."

"You sure?"

"Oh, yeah," she nodded. "It was good. I have classes with Edward and one with Alice and one with Jasper and we sit together at lunch. Biology and English look like they're going to be pretty easy, so that's good."

"Alright, well, if you have any problems, you know, you can talk, you know, to me." Charlie said, sounding just as awkward and unsure as she did. These two really were perfect for each other. "I mean, if you have trouble, talk to me, don't, you know, do dumb teenage stuff."

"Dumb teenage stuff?" She asked. She truly sounded like she had no idea what he might be referring to as 'dumb teenage stuff.' I was willing to bet Emmett wouldn't have needed clarification.

"You know, drinking, running with the wrong crowd – not that there really is a wrong crowd around here – but, before you act nuts and stuff, just talk to me and we'll see if we can work through it."

Bella blinked a few times at him and then smiled slowly. "That's real sweet, Uncle Charlie, thanks."

"Okay, well, good night."

"Good night, Uncle Charlie."

Bella watched as Charlie closed the door again. Nothing was amiss in Charlie's thoughts to indicate that he didn't believe his niece, but all the same, after Bella went to sleep, I was going to call Rosalie and have her get that truck to the school parking lot before morning.

As soon as the coast was clear, I shot over and sat next to her on the bed again. She didn't seem startled to see me instantly appear in front of her.

"You are _really_ bad at that," I said with a grin.

"At what?"

"Lying to your uncle."

"I'm bad at lying to anybody," she amended with a yawn. "I don't like it; I'm not good at it. I haven't had decades of practice like you."

"You'll get better," I replied.

"Yes," she sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of."

My heart went out to her, in more ways than one. She was out of her element, an unknowing player in a game where she couldn't possibly fathom the stakes.

"Why don't you get some rest?" I asked softly. "It's been a big day."

She laid back in bed, without bothering to get changed out of her clothes and pulled the covers over her. "Will you stay here with me?" She asked, as her eyes grew heavy and drifted closed.

I reached over very slowly, not completely sure of what I was doing and gently brushed a lock of hair aside from her face.

"Always."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Greetings my friends! I'm sorry for the delay between posts. My life has been very busy lately and I've actually taken even more on. I'm still working on this story quite a bit, but it's not necessarily chronological. Anyhoo, as usual, big hugs to my betas!**

**12.**

**~Jasper~**

High school.

No matter how many times you go through it, it still sucks. It's the same anywhere in the country; big cities, small towns, same teen angst. Each time we start at a new school, I need to accustom myself to all the humans, their scents, their mannerisms, their routines. Their routines are very important. Once I know each human's routine, I know how to avoid them when I need to; where in the school I can go in order to get their scents out of my head. I've always had to try harder than the others to resist. I haven't been at it as long as others.

Resisting humans that is; after Carlisle, I'm the oldest vampire in our family.

All this is to explain why I was hiding out in the school auditorium. It was quiet in there and the theater class wasn't for another two periods. Occasionally, kids cut through on their way to another class, but they didn't notice me, and I was high up in the balcony, away from the breeze of their scents as they hurried through.

High school was not only a hot bed of drama, but a hot bed of emotion, as well. The beginning of a school year brought new crushes and heart break. I tried to look at it as a challenge for my talent. Teenagers felt everything: love, hate, jealousy, envy, rejection, giddiness, disappointment, disenchantment, mischief, arrogance – there was a lot of arrogance – and they'd feel all these in the span of an hour.

One thing they didn't often feel was fear; honest to God genuine fear. Oh they were afraid of things alright, but they were afraid of stupid things, like getting up in class and giving an oral presentation, or getting grounded for a bad test grade, or they feared asking a girl out and her saying no. They were legitimate fears for teenagers, but real fear, real heart pounding, breath stealing fear was typically foreign to them. They thought of themselves as invincible; safe from the ugly world; protected from the dark side of life. They weren't any different at Forks High School.

Well, one of them was.

One of them felt real fear now and was desperately trying to control it.

And she was getting closer.

As I heard the auditorium doors open, I smelled Bella. I was up, out of my seat and to the side rail of the balcony in a split second. She was with Mike Newton and I found that strange. Bella stuck with us since we started school a few weeks ago, and _only_ us. She was painfully shy and did not like to be the center of attention, which is exactly what put her there as everyone was curious about the new kids, and she was the one that seemed most approachable to them.

"Are we allowed to be in here?" Bella asked as she stopped just inside the door.

"Sure. We're just cutting through. People do it all the time," Mike shrugged. He draped a friendly arm around her shoulders and Bella's breathing picked up. She politely shrugged his arm off with a cautious smile.

They walked a little further; then Mike spun around and angled himself so Bella ended up backed into a corner where the balcony stairs began. She grew even paler than she normally was and I began to growl low in my throat.

Mike Newton was oblivious to the change in her physical demeanor, no doubt mistaking the pick up in her breathing as anticipation.

"I was wondering something, since I finally got you alone…" He began. Bella's heart was thundering. Mike wouldn't be able to tell, but it was bouncing off the walls to me. "The homecoming dance is coming up and I was wondering if you would be my date?"

He trailed a finger down her arm and everything inside of her seemed to shut down. I honestly didn't perceive him as a threat to her, but the point of the matter was that _she_ quite obviously did, so I hopped over the balcony rail and landed silently behind Mike. Bella's relief when she saw me over Mike's shoulder was immediate and if it wasn't, I would have generated it for her.

"Hey, Bella!" I said pleasantly.

Mike turned around, clearly confused and startled to see me grinning, a little too largely, at him. Now _he _was nervous.

"Jasper," she said on a gasp. Edward entered the auditorium then. He nearly pulled the door off its hinges.

"There you are," he smiled at Bella. He said it pleasantly enough, but I could feel the rage radiating off of him. "I've been looking for you everywhere." I immediately endeavored to diffuse his very dangerous mood.

"We were, um," she stuttered. "We were taking a shortcut."

"Well that explains that," he smiled at Mike, but it was forced. Then he took Bella's hand and gently pulled her away from Mike, pressing a kiss to her temple, effectively giving Mike the wrong impression about Bella and Edward's relationship. "You look pale," Edward continued, running a hand down Bella's hair. "Do you feel alright?"

I arched my brow at them and observed their body language. She was turned in to him, clearly seeking protection. With each passing moment in his presence, she felt better, safer, without any help from me.

Well, well. Alice says sometimes she's wrong, but she clearly wasn't about this.

"No, not really," Bella said quietly.

"Mike, I'm going to take Bella to the nurse. Would you mind letting Mr. Banner know?"

"Sure," he said and turned away. There was that teen rejection. Poor guy. He'll be over it quickly, I'm sure. He was the most popular guy in school and only interested in Bella because all the guys were interested in Bella. He just wanted to win.

Alice entered then.

"The gang's all here," I drawled.

Alice walked up to Bella and took her hand. "Bella, look at me," she said quietly, but firmly. Bella obeyed. "He wasn't going to do anything; he just wanted to ask you to the dance and he was using his crappy moves to do it."

"Yeah," Bella nodded. "I just…I guess I over-reacted. When I felt my back against the wall…" She trailed off.

"You didn't over-react," Edward said. He began to run his hand down her hair again. "Not for someone who went through what you did, you didn't over-react. And now he knows you're not interested, and if you can stand a little gossip, the other boys will too."

"Yeah, okay," she nodded again. She turned toward Edward and put her hand on his bicep. "Hey, listen, don't tell Emmett I freaked out, okay?"

"Alright," he nodded, clearly confused by the request.

"Any of you, alright?" She now included Alice and myself in her request. "He went out of his way to try to protect me from our uncle and if he thinks it messed me up at all, he'll go bezerk, which was really saying something when he was human, I don't even want to how bezerk would be defined now."

"We'll do whatever you want, Bella," Edward assured. He ran his hand down her arm and took her hand. Alice looked at me and grinned. Bella and Edward were oblivious, but she and I saw this moment for what it was.

The beginning of Edward giving Bella absolutely anything she wanted.

Not that I thought that was a bad thing.

"Why don't I take you down to the nurse now?" Edward suggested, but she shook her head.

"No, I'm fine. I'm fine. Really."

Nobody believed her, but we were willing to go along with her. I began to sift through the myriad of emotions I felt to zero in and focus on Bella today. Between Alice and myself, we should be able to keep her covered.

**~Edward~**

How dare that prepubescent, insignificant miserable excuse for a boy frighten my beloved. That he thought he had any claim whatsoever that would allow him to touch her in any way at all is completely ludicrous. It doesn't matter that he didn't intend for "anything to happen" as Alice said. It didn't matter that he merely wanted to ask Bella to the school dance. I'm sure his after dance plans were totally lecherous and inappropriate.

Why this overly egotistical little punk thought that he was God's gift to the American teenage girl was completely unfathomable to me. That he thought he could touch my Bella, however innocently, was reason enough to rip his arms off. And I would do it, too. I would take off one arm and then the other while he screamed in agony. And then, while he writhed on the ground, twitching in pain so great it rendered him speechless, I would beat him with his dismembered limbs. I would –

"Edward?" Bella asked.

"Hold on, Bella. I'm not finished imagining Mike Newton's incredibly graphic and violent death."

"You're not going to hurt him, are you?"

"Not if I get to finish playing out this fantasy in my head."

"Edward!" She laughed. She actually laughed at me. If she had any inkling as to the images currently flickering in my head right now, she'd vomit.

I tugged her along by the elbow out of the school and towards the parking lot.

"Hold on," she said, drawing back. "Are we not going to biology?"

"No, I need to calm down first," I said bluntly; then took her arm again and led her over to my car.

Ever the polite one, I opened her door for her and closed her inside. Once I closed myself in the driver's seat, I pressed my palms to my eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked cautiously.

"No, not yet."

"Listen, Edward, I'm really sorry I over-reacted. I feel kind of silly about it now."

"Bella, when I saw the terror in your eyes in Mike's head, I wanted to kill him. You looked absolutely horrified and he couldn't see it. He thought you were excited by the attention he was giving you. He couldn't see that you were immobilized by fear and the fact that he did that to you… I just need some time to calm down. Just the thought of something happening to you spirals my brain."

"Why?"

"I'm your friend, Bella."

"Jasper's my friend too, and he just wanted to scare the hell out of him."

"I had a bigger reaction."

"How did you know where I was?" She asked.

I leaned back into the seat and turned my head to face her. "I followed your scent."

"Yes, but how did you know to come and find me?" Okay, so that was a little trickier to answer without sending warning bells off in her head.

"I saw you in Mike's head; you know I can read minds, Bella."

"Yes, but did I just pop in there? How did you know?"

This was turning into a conversation I was in no way ready to have with her and it was beginning to look unavoidable.

"Edward?" She asked; her eyes were huge and trusting. "Were you looking for me?"

Yeeeaaahh, that's where I thought this conversation was headed. "Looking for you?"

"Do you watch me in other people's heads, Edward?"

"When you say it like that, it makes me sound like a stalker," I said quickly and defensively. "And stalking typically entails harassment and intimidation. That's not at all what this is."

Her slow smile lit up her face and I felt myself immediately relax. Funny how she could change my moods nearly as effectively as Jasper could.

"Why don't you tell me what it is then?" Her voice sounded much more gentle now and I found myself falling under its spell. It was like some kind of truth serum.

"It's hard to explain in detail as I'm not sure you can really understand and appreciate the physiological aspects of it, not being a vampire, but for the past few weeks my life has revolved around you and I've needed to know where you were and how you were doing at all times. I know that sounds obsessive, but again, there's vampire physiology at play here and I can only assure you that it's been only concern for your well-being, and the need to see your face, and not any sinister intent or anything else like that on my part."

"Why would I think you had a sinister intent?"

"The whole wanting to kill you thing when we first met."

"Ah," she nodded. "Edward, are you nervous right now?"

"Very much," I confessed, though I think 'mortified' more accurately described my current mood. "I can't hear you, Bella, and so in order to watch over you, I have to actively look for you."

"Watch over me? Like my brother?"

"No, that's more like what Jasper was doing."

"And so you were watching over me in, like, what kind of capacity?"

"Something not anything like your brother." There. I said it. Now came the time when she screamed and ran.

However, in typical Bella fashion, she did the opposite of what I expected she would do. She smiled hugely, dropped her backpack on the floor and turned herself in her seat.

"Edward, I'm going to do something and I think it's best if I give you fair warning first because I don't want you to accidentally kill me or unintentionally hurt me."

"I will _never_ do either of those, Bella. Ever." Was she afraid to be around me? Did she believe that I could ever hurt her, however unintentional it would be? She could not understand how very cognizant I was of my strength in handling her. She was so delicate and I was ever vigilant that I be gentle with her. It was something I constantly had to think about, but it was just one small portion of the opportunity cost associated with being in love with a human. There was nothing that I wouldn't do for her. Absolutely nothing.

She nodded and took a deep, steadying breath.

"What are you going to do?" I asked her.

"I'm going to kiss you," she said bluntly.

"I think that's a very bad idea."

"I think it's a very good idea. Unless…unless I'm misreading you."

"You're not misreading me. In fact, I don't think there's anybody that understands me and reads me better than you."

"Don't kill me, okay?" She said, leaning forward a bit.

"What about your brother?"

She stopped and looked at me. "What about him?"

"He's not going to like this."

"He's not here to know about it."

"He'll find out eventually."

"I can handle my brother," she looked sternly at me and I stifled the urge to laugh. I actually looked forward to it. I did enjoy watching them get in each other's faces.

"Okay, but what -"

"EDWARD!" She suddenly shrieked.

"What? What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"Listen, I know you've probably done this a thousand times, okay, but it's my first first kiss and you're kind of sucking all the romance out of it."

"I've never done it before."

She moved back a little bit and cocked her head to the side in her totally adorable way. "Really?"

"Really. I may have when I was human, but I honestly don't remember. And I'm not a vampire that, well, gets around. Can we stop talking about this?"

"Do you _want_ to kiss me?"

"More than I've ever wanted anything more in my existence."

"I've never wanted anyone to kiss me before, Edward. My experience in this area has been unpleasant. But I think if it was you, I'd like it. In fact, I think a kiss between us would be amazing. I want you to kiss me. I want you to touch me. I want it to be you that changes my past experience."

And how exactly was I supposed to argue with that? Especially since I wanted all that, too. I lifted my hand slowly to cup the back of her neck, answering her without words. Her breath hitched and her heart sped up. I was sorry that there were no physical signs of reassurance coming from me for her. I wish she could know for sure that I wanted this as much as she did.

As we leaned closer and I looked into her eyes, I knew I would remember this moment with crystal clarity for the rest of my existence, this perfect moment of anticipation. When her eyes closed and just before our lips met, I drew in a breath, but it did nothing to alleviate the volcanic explosion that tore through my body. But with that explosion of fire was a tingle that went straight down to my toes. Something that I didn't anticipate. With our lips pressed together, my mind swirled. A voice in the back of my mind said, "Take more. You know you want to."

I released her lips and took them again more urgently. Her hands wound up into my hair and her heartbeat bounced off the walls of the car. Her scent whipped around me like a tornado and I knew I was in trouble. I struggled to pull myself away and then practically ripped the car door off trying to get out into the fresh air.

I gulped the air into my lungs and my head cleared. It seemed like forever before Bella finally got out of the car and ran around to me. I was bent over, bracing my hands on my knees and forcing myself back under control.

"Are you alright? Edward!"

Bella placed her hand on my back and bent over to look at my face. I straightened up and pressed her against the car, caging her in with my arms. She looked surprised. Her lips were moist and swollen and I didn't fight the urge to take another taste. She grabbed on to my shirt as we kissed against the car.

I felt like I could swallow her whole, but in a good way. I channeled the burn to create a different kind of fire; one that I could get used to; that I never wanted extinguished. I was being selfish, I knew that. I had no business touching her this way. I had no business leading her on like I was. There couldn't be a future for us. I couldn't give her anything she deserved, like a family or a normal life. But I also don't think I could continue to exist without having an experience like this. And now that I did, I couldn't see going on without it.

Her hands came up to my face and I felt the warm tips of her fingers against my cold skin. I drew away from her and stepped back. Her hands fell back down against the car and she looked at me, breath heaving, heart racing. Her eyes bored into me, searching for the soul I didn't have no doubt.

"I'm _really_ sorry, Bella."

"For what?"

"For all of that'"

"Why would you be sorry about that?"

"I kind of lost myself there and I'm afraid I wasn't very gentlemanly. I'm really not sure our relationship should change like this. There's a lot you haven't thought about."

"If we both have these feelings, why shouldn't we act on them?"

"Your brother, for one."

"My brother has Rosalie," she pointed out. "Why on Earth should I have no one? Listen, he may get a little over-protective, but I'm sure he doesn't honestly expect me never to kiss a guy or do…other stuff with a guy. And if he does, well, then he's got a rude awakening coming to him. I can't have the normal life he supposedly wants me to have without normal human experiences."

She had an excellent point.

"I don't know how normal those experiences would be with me and they certainly wouldn't be human," I countered.

"We've already established that you care about me more than as just a friend and I feel the same way about you. We're clearly going to be a part of each other's lives now, why not explore these feelings? Edward, it doesn't make any sense not to. If we don't we're just going to be miserable to the point where we don't want to be in each other's presence because it'll hurt too much. Then we'll start avoiding each other, it'll get awkward for everyone and there's just no point to that."

I took a step back to her. One hand slid to her hip and the other ran up into her hair. "I don't want you to be miserable, Bella. Ever. Certainly not because of me."

"Okay, then," she nodded and her breath shuddered out before she tentatively moved in and kissed me again.

I could get used to this. I wanted to get used to this. I don't know how "okay" it was though. I loved her beyond measure, but that didn't mean I was good for her. However, I was more than willing to explore this new side to our relationship. I already knew that I'd never be far away from her as long as she lived; whether it was in this capacity or in an anonymous one remained to be seen. But I did know that I wanted the best for her and if she thought that _I_ was the best for her than I was willing to give myself to her and we'd see what happened.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: It could be that the maturity level drops a bit in this one…**

**13.**

**~Bella~**

"Happy Birthday, butt face."

My eyes flew open and my brother's face was just inches away from in mine.

"Emmett! You remembered!"

"Of course I remembered. I even got you something." I sat up in bed and looked around the room. I got a little nervous at first, but then I remembered Charlie's plans for an early morning fishing trip. He would be back later in the afternoon and we were going to go to dinner to celebrate, which was a nice thought, but sure to be kind of awkward.

"Nice bed head," my brother laughed, reaching out and ruffling the nest on my head.

"You got me a present?" I ignored his teasing, not that I ever thought that would make it go away, but sometimes I just refused to engage in battle.

"I did." He sounded quite proud of himself. He picked up the huge box in his lap and put it on the bed between us.

I didn't want a big deal made about my birthday because I hated being the center of attention, but I was curious to see what my brother had gotten me.

I pulled off the wrapping paper and gaped at the box with the Apple logo on it.

"You got me a computer!"

"Yeah, it's one of those fancy MacBooks. You may or may not have noticed your cell phone is an iPhone. Well, I activated it as a hot spot, so you can get wireless internet on this and not have to plug it in to the wall."

"Wow." I felt a lump forming in my throat and my eyes filled up. "I don't know what to say."

"Thank you is what's most widely accepted."

I wiped my eyes and hugged him. "Thank you," I said quietly in his ear. "I can't believe you got me something this cool."

"If you think this is cool, wait until you see what's waiting for you at the house."

I pulled away and looked at him with dread. "Please tell me they didn't go overboard." I know Edward said I should get accustomed to people doing things for me, but I wasn't, and quite frankly, I imagined it was going to take a very long time for me to get used that kind of thing, if I ever did.

"Oh, they went overboard; every last one of them."

"Crap."

"No, it's good stuff. And they really liked doing it," he assured me. "Like _really_ liked it."

I sighed heavily and set the box aside to get up and start my day. As I moved to the closet to pick out clothes, Emmett dove into the computer box. "I'm going to set this up."

"Good. Then after that, you can show me how to use it."

"Someone as nerdy as you should be able to figure this out in no time."

"Yeah, because I'm so technically savvy," I grumbled and pushed my way out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom.

That _was_ really cool of Emmett to get me a computer, I had to admit. I had been wavering back and forth about it. Charlie insisted I get one, but I didn't know the difference between them and really wasn't sure that I actually _needed_ one. The school had a computer lab, so if I had to type any papers, I could just do it there after school. And if I really didn't want to do that, the Cullens had bunch of computers. I'm sure I could use Edward's or Alice's. It wasn't like I really knew anyone to email. The Cullens were the only people I actually knew here other than Charlie and I saw them all the time. Why would I need to email them anything?

Of course, it was my choice that I wasn't really friendly with anyone else at school. There were nice people there. Angela was very nice and Jessica, well, she was a gossip, but she talked to me a lot. Mike steered clear of me now, as did pretty much all the boys. That really didn't bother me though, since I wasn't interested in dating any of them. How could I be when I had Edward?

I wasn't exactly sure in what capacity I _had_ Edward. It was definitely more than as a friend now, but calling him my boyfriend sort of felt kind of strange. Technically speaking, he was like 97 years old. I'm not sure he qualified as a "boy." Plus, he seemed so much _more_ than that. It was hard to explain, but somehow I knew he was it for me, though I couldn't say what made me so sure.

What was even more bizarre was that I didn't even mind not knowing what it all meant. I didn't have to have the answers now. An odd sort of serenity had fallen over me since yesterday afternoon. It was such a foreign feeling to me that I actually thought maybe Jasper was around controlling my emotions. But I wasn't sure that he had done that to me at all yet, and I thought maybe if he had, it would probably be obvious.

I'd never been kissed before and that kiss pretty much knocked my socks off; it literally felt electric. I had never _wanted_ someone like that. I thought that if I stopped kissing and touching Edward that I might not be able to breathe. I felt my heart pound and parts of me that I didn't even know I had tingled.

I yanked my brush through my hair as I thought about what happened with Mike Newton. In hindsight, I really think a simple palm to the chest and a light shove would have been just fine, but I froze up. All I could think of was my uncle. It was wrong of me to compare every guy to my uncle. They weren't all like that.

But I really hadn't done that, had I? I wasn't afraid of Uncle Charlie and I never thought Edward would do anything I didn't want him to, not for a second. I was never afraid he'd cross a line. I didn't really have any lines for him to cross. I realized that I would happily explore whatever he wanted to explore. I wanted that with him.

I lowered my brush and looked at myself in the mirror with the new eyes of my epiphany. I wanted a _physical_ relationship with Edward. And I actually wanted it pretty bad. I arched a brow as I assessed myself as others might.

My skin was pale, almost like an albino. My hair was a normal boring shade of brown and my eyes weren't much more interesting than my hair. I wasn't a fashionable dresser. In fact, I was pretty understated. I even managed to be that way with everything Alice had bought me. When Charlie had taken me shopping after I first got to Washington, I was able to supplement my wardrobe with things that were more _me._

So what would someone like Edward see in me?

Other than the fact that he could be himself around me, like his _real_ vampire self.

I wasn't attractive like Rosalie and Alice, and even Esme. I wasn't particularly talented at anything. I couldn't play an instrument and certainly wasn't any kind of sports star. Hell, I couldn't even manage five consecutive steps without tripping over a flat surface.

I was smart. I had that going for me. But I was self-conscious and so shy it was almost disabling at times.

But I wasn't shy around Edward or his family. Granted, I was still pretty quiet, but I wasn't nervous around them. They really didn't let me be. I wasn't sure what I had to offer someone like Edward, other than blood, that is.

Regardless of what I saw of myself, Edward saw something that interested him. And while I wasn't sure I would ever understand what that was, I was determined not to let it bother me and enjoy the time I had with him.

The bigger problem was Emmett. In the past, he had always been extremely protective of me. I always knew that sooner or later, we'd have to have this conversation. The day would come when he would have to back off and let me make my own decisions on who I did or didn't date. And, quite frankly, a relationship with a human, at least a serious long-term one, was now out of the question. How would I explain Emmett? Or any of the Cullens?

After I finished getting dressed, I opened the door while I brushed my teeth. Emmett almost immediately appeared in the doorway and leaned up against the jam.

"I'm thinking about getting a car," he announced.

"I know; you told me."

"The Cullens have a lot of money. Alice can predict trends in the stock market. It's not even like they're filthy rich, they're, like, _wealthy_."

I spit my toothpaste out and rinsed my mouth. "There's a difference?"

"Apparently, there is," he shrugged.

"So what are you going to get? Some crazy fast thing?" I asked, walking by him and back down to my bedroom. The laptop was opened on the bed and I saw that he was logged onto the internet.

"I was thinking about this one," he gestured to the computer and we both sat down on the bed. "Take a look at this, Bells. It's a big fuck-off Jeep."

He turned the laptop in my direction, but in response I blurted, "I kissed Edward!"

Well, I didn't really mean to tell him like _that._ But it was out there now, so we would both have to deal with it.

He blinked at me.

"Huh?"

"Edward. Me and Edward. We kissed. I kissed him."

"Where?"

"In his car."

"Where. Did. You. Kiss. Him. On. His. Body?"

That tone didn't sound so good.

"Oh, um, well, his lips of course."

"_Of course_?"

"Where else would I kiss him?"

"I don't know; I don't want to think about it." He said waving his hands around as if to erase the very image from his mind. "In what capacity did you kiss him?"

"What? I don't understand."

"Did you kiss him as your friend? As a very good friend with no romantic connotations whatsoever?" His tone told me that was the answer he was hoping for.

"No, not exactly."

"So then what, you _kind of_ kissed him in some sort of romantic way?"

"Emmett, I have feelings for him."

"I don't give a flying fuck if you have _feelings_ for him! You're 17! He's a boy; you're a girl. Boys don't kiss _my_ sister!"

"You kiss Rosalie all the time. I don't give you any grief about it."

"Oh, you don't?" He challenged crossing his arms.

"No, I don't." I crossed my arms too and glared at him in return.

"How about a certain conversation we had where you asked me if I loved her more than you?"

Damn. He got me there.

"That's completely irrelevant."

"In what way?"

"I'm not talking about love; I'm talking about a harmless little kiss," I insisted. Except it was an epic kiss and I was pretty sure I was talking about love.

"If it was so harmless, then why are you so defensive?"

"_You're_ the one making me defensive. I can kiss boys if I want. I can go kiss any boy I feel like and you can't say anything. You didn't really expect me to live like a nun, did you?"

"_That's_ what's irrelevant."

"You sound ridiculous."

"If I do it's because you've turned me into a raving fucking lunatic," he ground out. I could see he was getting extremely mad. His body tensed up and his eyes were fierce. I wasn't sure what this kind of anger did to him now. Before he would just likely put a hole in a wall, but I didn't know what he would be capable of doing now.

"Listen, Bella," he continued, clearly trying to get himself back under control. "Edward is…"

He trailed off and I waited.

"He's…it's like this…"

I arched an eyebrow expectantly as I waited for him to continue. It didn't seem like he could finish his sentence.

"You don't have anything bad to say about him, do you?" I said with a smirk.

"Of course I do," he snapped in response.

"Alright, well then let's hear it."

"He's a guy! That's reason enough."

"Please," I scoffed. "Why did you bring me to Washington?"

"I've told you why," he all but growled.

"Because you wanted me to have a normal life. _You_ brought _me_ out here. How long can you reasonably expect to call the shots in my life?"

"At least another year."

"Wrong," I said firmly. "I'm 17. I can make my own decisions. I'm sorry you don't agree with them, but that's just too damn bad. It's not like you ever take what _I_ think into consideration before you make any of your dumb ass decisions!"

"And just what the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?" He did growl this time and it was not a pleasant sound. His fists were clenched at his sides; a telltale sign that he wanted to strangle me.

"Why did you go off with Lou, Emmett?" I suddenly demanded. I surprised even myself by my question, but once it was out there was no turning back.

"Why did I –" he gaped at me. "Are you _kidding_ me?"

"There were two of us, Emmett, we could have left! You were the one with the plan, you were the one that had the money saved. Why didn't we just leave? Why did you have to go fight him? If it wasn't for that fool move…" I trailed off, breathing hard. Everything about him had gone absolutely still.

"Finish your sentence, Bella," he said quietly. The anger in him seemed to be gone, but I wasn't really sure now what replaced it.

I shook my head. "I don't really know what I was going to say."

"Yeah, you do," he nodded. "Maybe not consciously but this was going to come out sooner or later. You've had a few weeks to adjust to everything now, so it's time for you to face what happened. If I hadn't gone with Lou, he wouldn't have killed me."

The words pierced me like arrows right in the chest and my mind seemed to shut down. I kept shaking my head.

"I got murdered, Bella. Lou killed me. I got murdered by someone I should have been able to trust. And since it turned out I couldn't trust him, I got killed. But I'm not sorry about it either. If I hadn't been changed, I can't even think about what would have happened to you. And I got my revenge when I killed him."

I held up one hand and pressed the other to her stomach, then turned away. I was nauseous. I was dizzy; I'd reached my limit, but he pressed on anyway.

"I killed Lou because that's what I am now and he _did_ deserve it. He deserved it for killing _me_."

"How can you be dead, Emmett?" I hissed. "You're standing there yelling at me. Dead people don't yell at people!"

"I don't have a heartbeat, Bella. My heart doesn't beat."

"Do you love me?"

"What?"

"Do. You. Love. Me!"

"Of course I do; what the hell kind of idiot question is that?"

"Well how can you _love_ without a _heart_?"

"I don't know; something else in me is doing it now."

"You're only clinically dead if you don't have any brain waves too!"

He paused for a second, mulling that one over. He cocked his head to the side and looked at her. "I don't think that's entirely accurate. I also don't breathe."

"Well, your mouth works just fine. In fact, it seems to be making up for everything else."

I felt the hot tears streaming down my face and I began to back away from him. It was becoming too much to take. His words made logical sense, of course, and I supposed I've known from the beginning what it all meant, but I couldn't face it.

"Bells," he said quietly.

I turned around and bolted from the room. I heard him call my name again and then I heard a cell phone. "WHAT!" His rude answer to the caller was the last thing I heard as I tore out of the house. I don't know where I was running to and I doubt I would have gotten very far by myself, but I suddenly crashed right into a solid form and fell to the ground.

"Bella!" The newcomer said, clearly surprised. "Oh shit! Are you alright?" I looked up and right at Jacob Black.

**~Edward~**

I watched the whole disastrous thing play out in Alice's mind. On the one hand, I wanted to strangle Emmett for making Bella that upset, on her birthday of all days! But on the other hand, she was going to have to face this sooner or later. There was only so long we could just float along and pretend the gravity of the situation wasn't lost on her. Bella wasn't stupid. Sooner or later, she was going to add two and two up and get four.

I didn't stick around to see the fallout in Alice's mind, but flew out the backdoor of the house and raced through the woods to get to Bella. I made it to the house for the tail end of the argument.

My phone in my pocket signaled a text message. I dug it out and saw that Alice had called Emmett home, freeing Bella up to be consoled by me. A most repugnant scent overcame my senses then. It had been a very long time since I smelled a werewolf, but there was one near.

My whole body went rigid. I looked to the front of the house as an orange Volkswagon Rabbit pulled up in front of the house and a boy got out. I knew immediately it was Jacob Black. He looked exactly like his grandfather. He didn't seem to sense me, which told me he must not be at the age to phase yet. If he had already begun to phase, he would have known I was here as soon as he pulled up to the house. That worked to my advantage.

I raced up a tree when I sensed Emmett coming out the back door. He'd probably smell me, but I didn't want a confrontation with him just now. I wanted to be there for Bella. She came running out the front door and collided with Jacob.

He grabbed her when she fell to the ground. I growled low in my throat in reaction to the werewolf touching my mate. "Bella! Oh shit! Are you alright?"

"Jacob?" She seemed confused. Her voice was hoarse with tears. I started to climb down the tree to go and comfort her, but I was stopped by a suddenly horrifying thought.

What if she didn't want to see me now? What if after that big reveal, she didn't want to see any of us? I didn't know if I could survive that. I held my position and watched things unfold in the front yard. I would intervene if she seemed to feel in any way threatened, but for now, I would stay back.

"I'm sorry," Bella said, wiping the tears from her face and stepping back out of Jacob's personal space.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt? Should I call Charlie?"

"No!" she denied immediately. "No, you don't need to call Charlie. I'm alright."

"No offense, Bella, but you are clearly not alright."

She turned away from him, shoulders hunched, wiping her eyes, and sat down on the front steps. Jacob sat down next to her. She looked miserable. I just wanted to go to her and wrap my arms around her and keep her there forever.

"No, I guess I'm not." Though she spoke in a whisper, her words were clear as a bell to me. "I just had a big fight with my brother."

"Emmett?" Jacob looked behind him to the house. "He's here?"

"Oh, um, no," Bella said. "He's not. Um, on the phone."

Even in her anger and depression, she protected her brother. I wanted to throttle him. In fact, I _was_ going to throttle him. He didn't deserve such an angel for a sister. He was clearly not worthy of her love and devotion. Bella's brother and I were going to have ourselves a little, and possibly extremely violent, chat.

Of course, I couldn't claim to be any more worthy of her, but that wasn't the issue at the moment.

"What'd you fight about?" Jacob asked.

"Oh, it's stupid. Don't worry about it." She tried to wave the whole thing off; she wasn't very convincing.

"Bella, come on," Jacob replied, bumping her knee with his. The dog had better stop touching her or I'd rip those legs off. "I'm a brother; I fight with my sisters. It's probably not going to sound at all stupid to me."

"You can't possibly want to hear this."

"I don't have anything else to do right now."

No, but maybe you could go find something else to do right now, Fido, instead of drooling all over my beloved.

Bella sighed and looked off down the road, clearly trying to figure out how she was going to word all this to Jacob. I wondered if she was going to just make something else up entirely.

"I guess you could say he doesn't approve of my choice of boyfriend," she said finally.

Wow. That was shockingly close to the truth.

"Boyfriend?" Jacob actually squeaked. "Charlie didn't mention you were seeing anyone."

"He doesn't really know yet. I was going to tell him later when we went to dinner. It's still pretty new," Bella continued. Looked like I was going to be meeting the Chief of Police soon, that is if Bella ever wanted to talk to me again after what came out in her conversation with Emmett. "I don't think it's so much this guy, as it is _any_ guy, you know? You're a brother. Why can't sisters kiss boys? Why is okay for boys to, I don't know, hop in the backseat with whoever they damn well want, whenever they damn well want, but a girl kisses a guy and her brother goes berserk. And I mean nuts. Emmett went absolutely ballistic!"

"Because we're guys, Bella, and guys only want one thing from a girl and any guy that tells you something different is lying to you," Jacob said firmly. I wanted to smash his face into the pavement. That is _not_ what I wanted from Bella, though it was definitely what Jacob wanted. I wanted nothing more than to breathe – or, you know, not – the same air she did. I just wanted to be a part of her life. I could never be with her in that way, it would kill her.

"Oh really, and is that why _you're_ here?" she smirked.

Good girl. Jacob started stuttering.

"Oh, well, no, of course not." She'd turned him into a blithering half-wit. He was such an amateur. "I was in the area and Charlie said it was your birthday and you were going to be by yourself most of the day, so I came to see if maybe you wanted to go out for a bit, maybe down to the beach and walk around, watch the surfers."

Clearly it was to be a romantic walk on the beach until the dreaded boyfriend bomb got dropped on him.

And let me spend a second on the word "boyfriend." It sounded kind of strange as a label pertaining to myself, but I was elated that Bella thought of me in that capacity.

Or she did until Emmett went and fucked it all up.

"Oh," Bella's voice dropped and I heard her heart speed up. She was getting nervous. Time to intervene. I dropped out of the tree and walk casually around the corner to the front of the house.

"Hey, Bella," I greeted.

"Edward!" She was surprised to see me. She looked around by the road. Oh yeah, I didn't bring my car. How were we going to explain this?

"Don't look so surprised to see me! Remember, I told you'd I'd be hiking today? I stopped by for a breather."

"That's right," she stammered. "I guess I forgot."

"Who's this?" I asked politely gesturing to Jacob.

Bella stood up and took a few steps toward me. "This is Jacob Black. His family is friends with Charlie. Jacob, this is Edward, my, um, boyfriend."

Jacob didn't offer his hand, which was a good thing because I wasn't about to take it and then I would have just come across as plain rude, but obviously a vampire could not touch a werewolf, whether or not it was a phasing wolf.

"You look like you were crying, Bella," I said. Clearly, if I was at all an attentive boyfriend, and of course I _was_, I would immediately notice how she looked. "Are you alright?" I gave Jacob a good glare because I think if a 17 year old human boy came upon his girlfriend with another boy and she looked like she was crying, he would think that boy had something to do with it. Wouldn't he? Yes, that sounded like the teenage angst that filled my head every day.

"I got in a huge fight with my brother," she muttered.

"Okay, well, I guess I'll get going," Rin Tin Tin said when he realized he clearly wasn't going to get anywhere with Bella. "How 'bout a rain check on the beach, Bella? Maybe you and Charlie could come down to the Rez and do some fishing."

Bella looked disgusted at the mere suggestion of fishing and I chuckled.

"Sure," she nodded, but I knew her well enough to know she didn't mean it.

"See ya," Jacob said. Lassie gave me a glare and then turned and walked back to his car. Bella and I watched him get in the car and then pull away…much too fast.

"Are you sure you're alright?" I asked softly. She shrugged and looked at her feet. "Do you want me to go?" Her head snapped up and she looked surprised.

"No, not at all. Unless the sight of a weeping woman puts you off. Emmett generally runs for the hills when I start crying…well, he _did_ run for the hills when I started crying."

"No, he didn't. Alice saw what happened and she called him home."

"So you know."

"Yes."

"Everything we talked about?"

"Mostly, yes. I saw it in Alice's mind and then got here for the end of it."

"God!" She pushed her hands to her forehead and sat back down on the steps. "I feel like such and idiot! I know, I _know_ what 'undead' means, but, I don't know…" She took a deep breath. "It's just when he put it like that…I don't know, it just sounded so violent."

I sat down beside her, then very slowly reached over and took her hand, praying she didn't cringe away. Of course, she didn't.

"It was violent," I said gently. "It was violent for Emmett, it was violent for Rosalie and Carlisle, it was just plain tragic for Esme, and it was violent for Alice and Jasper."

"You're the only one that got away unscathed, so to speak."

"So to speak," I agreed, though Carlisle's bite was certainly violent enough.

"I'm sorry that happened to you all," she whispered. She squeezed my hand and I smiled. She was so caring. How was she ever going to survive in our world? What human in their right mind comforted a vampire? Who would even consider doing that?

"Well, I don't know now," I said thoughtfully, looking down at our linked hands. "If I hadn't ended up in Carlisle's hospital, I would have actually died like I was supposed to and then I wouldn't have met you 80 years later. That would have been the real tragedy."

"I'd hardly call that a bright side," she chuckled.

"Oh, believe me, Bella, it is." I insisted. "You don't see yourself clearly. You're the very best thing that's ever happened to me."

She blushed furiously at that and the fire ripped down my throat.

I turned to her and gently cupped her cheek in my hand, then lifted her face, feeling the burn, relishing in it. It took a few drawn out seconds before she finally met my eyes. "It's true," I reaffirmed. "I'll protect you, Bella, from anything and anyone. _Anyone_. Do you understand?"

She nodded.

I moved in slowly and pressed my lips to hers. She grabbed onto my shirt and kissed me back. Thankfully, for reasons passing my understanding, she was not creeped out.

She pulled back a bit and met my gaze. "And I can kiss whoever the hell I want!" She said firmly.

"Absolutely," I smirked leaning in again. "Just so long as it's me."


End file.
